van den Hul Colibri, Koetsu Rosewood Signature, SoundSmith Sussurro Mk ii


After years of focusing on medium to high compliance MM and MI cartridges (and a handful of old piezoelectrics) in various turntables, I'm finally looking to add my first serious MC cartridge.  I've long been interested in either the Koetsu Rosewood Signature or the van den Hul Colibri (XGP/XGW) and had planned to go with one of those carts.  That said, I've seen enough glowing reviews of the SoundSmith Sussorro and its progeny to make me seriously consider that as an alternate route.  I would love to hear thoughts from anyone who has experience with more than one of those carts.
The cart will be mounted in a Moerch DP6 (yellow) as the second arm on a Thorens TD 124.
My listening tastes are eclectic, so I'm particularly interested in how the carts handle a diversity of music.
Thanks in advance.
Best,
Carroll
cmdc

Showing 4 responses by agrippa

I don’t know the Sussurro, or for that sake any other Soundsmith cartridge, but of the Colibri and the Rosewood Signature the former wins as far as I’m concerned. Not because the Koetsu is bad in any way; au contraire, it’s a glorious cartridge. I do, however, find the Colibri more neutral, more homogenous, more agile, with a tighter bass performance and simply better suited as an all-round cartridge for all kinds of music.

My own musical tastes could be said to be eclectic too I guess and I listen to classical, early music, 60s/70s British rock/folk/folk-rock, a wide variety of "ethnic" music, French chansons, classic jazz, indie rock, blues and much more. While the Koetsu would be slightly better suited to a some genres, it would be less suited to others, while the Colibri handles each and every one superbly.
The Mørch should work just fine with the Rosewood, especially with a blue arm tube. Way back I tested an Onyx Platinum in my (then) Syrinx PU3b with an effective mass of 11g and it worked beautifully.

The paramount issues are the quality of the arm’s bearings, its general construction quality and tolerances, not adherence to a compatibility table which dates from the 50s and is likely quite incorrect. The Mørch scores high on all three and I’d have no doubts about using it with a Rosewood.

I’d still buy the Colibri though.
Ah yes, the 103.  Both it and its brother the 103R sounded suberb on the 11g Syrinx.

Sure, extreme mismatches are bad.  I wouldn't, for instance, stick a Koetsu on a Black Widow or a Grace 747.  Well, actually I would, but only out of curiosity and I wouldn't expect the combo to sound fabulously.  The DP6 with a yellow tube will likely be borderline and less than ideal, but with a blue tube I'd be happy to put 5 bucks on it sounding superb.

Short of serious or extreme mismatches I'm perfectly happy to maintain that bearing quality is the paramount determinant of whether or not the arm will handle a cartridge, followed by overall manufacturing quality and tolerances.

If those are all covered the arm will in all likelyhood handle cartridges well outside what's recommended by that table everyone's treating like holy scripture.  That has certainly been my consistent experience up until and including this very day.
Well, if anyone knows it ought to be them.
Best of luck whatever you end up with!