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Well Tempered Reference Arm and Koetsu Rosewood Signature Combination

Hello,

Does anyone out there have any experience using a Koetsu Rosewood Signature cartridge in a Well Tempered Reference arm?  I have this cartridge and arm which is mounted to a WT Classic 'table.  I know this arm classifies presumably as a low mass arm. I bought the cartridge with a few hundred hours on it (circa mid 90's) and since then the suspension went kaput (tracking at 2 grams). I am seriously having Koetsu rebuild it. I really liked the sound of it in the arm before the suspension went south. Is there a better choice out there today for the same/ less money, across the board on all accounts, and is better suited for this arm if that's the case? I want to stick with my a moving coil.  I remember back in the mid-80's a dealer back then let me borrow his Onyx Signature (pre-platinum) for a few months.  I NEVER forgot that sound. It rivaled or surpassed any CD as CDs were back then for sound and quietness. The greatest surprise (and let-down was when I had to give it back to the dealer and put my Dynavector Karat Ruby back in my Grace 909 arm. That's when my jaw fell on the floor. It was quite heartbreaking.

If anyone has any experience with the combo above please chime in.

Thanks,

Statman71

statman71
m-db's avatar
m-db
971 posts
 
Lewm, regarding the Well Tempered forked tonearm I, for one, understand and agree with your point regarding the semantics around the word bearing.

My concern is the issue that would have allowed you to visually notice a change in azimuth as well as the over damping. A few things that come to mind:
 
If the plane of the paddle was too far out of relationship with the cartridge mounting surface this might have created an azimuth issue. I've seen arm wands that have spun within the paddles T support which cause this. If the paddle had contacted any part of the cup during its arc across the LP it would have caused similar problems. 

A difference in vinyl thickness and or a variability in how the record was clamped down to the platters concave could have been viewed as a misadjusted azimuth. This is one of my personal dissatisfactions with the early Well Tempered system.

Over time the viscosity of  the tonearm damping fluid increases which is just as unnoticeable as the wear of a vacuum tube. The difference isn't noticed until its been replaced. Some have used the much more viscous platter cup fluid in the tonearm cup. Some have even admitted to using automotive additives for these fluids. 

In any case there may have been an issue with the setup of your Well Tempered tonearm. All the best with your current collection of spinners, very nice.
lewm
13,035 posts
 
The WTR in question was not mine. It belonged to a very close friend who lived in my area. He purchased it way back in the 90s for its list cost of nearly $10K. In his later years, he developed dementia. When his symptoms were still rather mild, I went to his house to help him mount a new cartridge. It was at this juncture that I noticed the problems with azimuth, excessive damping, etc. Prior to the onset of his illness, he was a very knowledgeable audiophile with an engineering background. I doubt that he mistreated the tonearm, but it is fair to say that I did not have continuing use of the WTR tonearm and so cannot say whether it was in tiptop operating status when I played with it. Sadly, I doubt that he ever got to use it again, even after I helped him with setting up his new cartridge that evening.

I should add that I "heard" the WTR many times at the home of my friend, over many years when he still had all his faculties.  He owned 6000 LPs.  My overall impression was that it made most LPs sound "good" or "pleasant". Perhaps this state of grace could be described as euphony.
statman71 OP
3 posts
 

To lewm's point:

The 'bearing' in either the original WT arm or the WT Reference arm or any of the current WTLab arms amounts to an arm tube and paddle assembly suspended by two mono-filament lines (fishing line) which are immersed in a cup of silicone fluid. This assembly acts as the
'pivot' point. I think I determined that having a Koetsu Sig, is more the culprit than the arm, reading several other commentary on this cartridge and going to Koetsus which have platinum magnets will make a difference in bass output.


To m-dB's point:

I remedied the WTT concave platter issue by going to my local hardware store (Do It Best) and spending a grand total of ~$1.29 (?) for a rubber (pliable) disc about the diameter of a 45rpm adaptor and ~2-3mm thick which just happened to fit perfectly in the center silver spindle area of the platter (on Classic table). No cutting to size required.  This effectively elevates LP label to just at (or VERY near) the same height the record is at at the outer edge of the platter.  Consequently, when I tighten the record clamp down, the vinyl is not oil-canned in at the label area (which would cause skating problems otherwise.   

fjn04
1,561 posts
 
As just a regular old guy with an Amadeus GTA (mk 1) , who may want to return to Koetsu, any thoughts on the synergy??? (-:
statman71 OP
3 posts
 

fjn04-

From another regular old guy... I would say that using that arm with a Koetsu might work out ok as long as it is a Platinum and not a signature because as I found out, reading around the web, the Signatures can't play the frequency extremes regardless of the arm it's in which I found to be quite the truth. The platinum cartridges also have the platinum magnets which are bigger and produce another 200uV of output. I'm not too familiar with the Amadeus but I just read the literature on it at the WTLabs website and Bill Firebaugh says that the golf ball cannot be submerged in the silicone fluid more than 30%.  In my WTRef arm that equates to no more than just over the paddle, otherwise the arm will be way too damped and cause the cantilever to really bend (with a VTF of 1.8g). I would submerge it only a little. As I've read elsewhere on the 'Gon and elsewhere,  I agree with 100ohms of loading. I tried several values between 33 and 1K and it seems 100 ohms to best for what I want to hear. -Statman71

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