Hello, I came across this thread a bit late but I have first hand experience with what is being discussed so I thought to chime in - if a bit late. I have a small collection of Sugano built Koetsu which I am rather fond of. My favourites are two MKI Urushi which were the swan song of his personal production. These were the first to feature platinum magnets and unlike the Urushi of today have aluminium chassis with the Urushi lacquer on the outside much thicker than you see in todays models. This cartridge weighs 13g and I prefer them to Jades and Coralstones. I used the first one for several years until the stylus departed and being of the opinions stated above I sent it to Expert Stylus. It came back with the stylus grossly askew and when I mentioned this they said it must have been my mishandling and I would have to pay for another retip. I went forward despite the fact that I had not mishandled the cartridge. Upon return the cartridge in no way sounded like it had before, all the magic was stripped from the presentation, even after 50 or so hours of break in, and thus I shelved it. I pulled out its stable mate, only several serial numbers apart, and the difference was gross, night and day. The rebuild had none of what I seek in Koetsu. Eventually I sent it back to Koetsu and it was more than fully restored exceeding its older and more worn stable mate on its return. There are a lot of opinions floating around. The real life experience above means I will only be sending my Koetsu off to Koetsu for rebuilds. It is common to see third party rebuilt Koetsu for sale and this is for a reason - you lose a beautiful cartridge along with the cost of the cheap and disappointing rebuild...
