2. analog
  3. 131346-99360

koetsu

seeking advice as to where the sweet spot is in this line price/performance.

dancekerl
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
A used Koetsu Black would be a good budget choice. Or a used Supex 500 (same designer as the Koetsu). Either one used with a good SUT will provide plenty of sonic realism from your favorite LP's!
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

My experience with Koetsus is limited but I own many MC carts

while without comparisons no judgement is possible. My first

was the Rosewood Signature which was refurbished by Koetsu

for 2000 euro. I was not impressed. Then I got one of those Uruchi's;

the Blue Sky. This one was in a different league. Nobody, except

the very rich, needs a better cart. This curious description ''Uruchi's

are painted Rosewoods'' make no sense to me. My advice would be

buy whatever Uruchi you can find for a reasonable price , post the

cart to Expert stylus in UK and enjoy the cart for the rest of your life.

By Expert stylus your cart will be checked, cleaned and provided

with their ''Paratrace'' stylus for about 200 GBP. So no worry about

your records.

dancekerl OP
16 posts
 
Great advice friends, i really appreciate it all.
Am using Pass' xp-15, so no worries of gain/noise i think, although i made a gift to a friend of one of Bob's Devices suts and it really transformed his system. We were both stunned as we listened to it break in over a weekend of non-stop listening.

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,774 posts
 
I have a few Platinums, and they all match amazingly well with both the Bob’s Devices 1131 and Sky 40 SUTs. The 1131 sounds much better at 40x than 20x, btw. The SUT provides plenty of gain when paired with a good MM of your choice (keep it below 46dB gain); this opens up tons of options. Also, keep that SUT-to-MM interconnect very short (0.5m).

I’ve run a Koetsu cartridge as my main source for several years, and though I get curious about other carts, the Koetsu haven’t lost a bit of their magic and charm. Still waiting to hear something else be "it", like the Koetsu was to me within its first few notes.

I like stone bodies better than the RSP -- better bass. Worth the extra coin for an Onyx. I haven’t heard the other parts of the line, but the Urushi models look very intriguing. Though they have higher output, my experience with a Shelter Harmony (0.5mV) indicates that these too would probably be excellent with a SUT.
tdybare1
13 posts
 
I have a Koetsu Urushi Gold and I don't know how I ever lived without it. It is an amazing cartridge, but takes at least 50 hours to sound its best. I went from a Grado Statement 1 that I've had retipped twice by Soundsmith. I thought I would never change from this cartridge because I always thought it did everything right for me and my system. I've always wondered about Koetsu's, so I took the plunge. Now I know why people never give them up, they're magical! They sound so right they put a spell on you. I know I'm never going to give it up now! Ha ha!
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