Have There Ever Been Fake Koetsu?

@macg19 

Thanks! I tried my Jade on Clearaudio Universal 12" VTA - and that was quickly the end of further Koetsu experiments on the arm. Tracks and plays fine. It's just sonically very flat and dull. Definitely lacking sparkle. Jade is probably the worst Koetsu to match here, for that reason - similar to Coralstone, it's especially warm, even for a Koetsu. If I had to guess, I'd blame the carbon fiber wand more than the mass / compliance match. That Universal arm generally has a bit of a relaxed top end. It matches better to Ortofons, Benzes, and Shelter Harmony. 

If I were to try Koetsu again on a Tracer (which looks like a really nice arm in its own right), since it has the carbon fiber wand I'd want samarium cobalt magnets (punchy) and the metal body of Black (I generally like metal bodies on cartridges). The Rosewood and Urushis also use samarium cobalt magnets and could be good, but honestly the Black seems like it could slot in really nicely there. Unfortunately I haven't heard these Koetsu models, but being somewhat familiar with the effect of magnet types and body materials, this would be my best guess!

If you want to scale up, a used Fidelity Research FR64fx in good condition ($1500) is hard to beat for a match to Koetsu. You'd just need an armboard, and I'm not certain if it could fit the Performance / Ovation's small circular armboard. Perhaps worth checking though. I really love these FR arms on my Innovation series tables. Not just for Koetsu, either. On Innovations and Solutions, the FR64fx fits (only just, but it does) on their standard Graham Phantom long / flat armboard. Also have the Graham Phantom II Supreme and it's really good sounding and a dream to setup, but dang I just like those FR arms.

@mulveling Thank you - you've given be a lot to think about / explore. 

FWIW, the stone bodied Koetsus work well with the Kuzma Airline- it doesn’t have high vertical mass, but the horizontal mass is considerable (this, notwithstanding Franc’s claim that the air bearing is frictionless and makes that irrelevant for most purposes). I have a Jade and Tiger Eye, both new from factory. The Jade is very good; there is some criticism that it makes everything some the same- i.e., a coloration. The Tiger Eye, which took time to break in, has more high freq information, and I’ve been running that for a while.

These are special cartridges- normally a high mass arm of the old type is required. But the combo of air bearing linear tracker + Koetsu works magic in my system; it isn’t just midrange purity-- I’ve had Van den Hul, Lyras top offerings and Airtights- none had the bass dimension and tone of the Koetsu along with that magical midrange.

I know the initial post was about Koetsu forgeries, but the discussion went sideways into 3rd party retipping.

I had been using Van den Hul for a couple decades. With COVID19, I decided I didn’t want to chance sending the cartridge across the pond and so I tried someone local, Steve Leung of VAS. I plan on writing a review of moderate length of the work he has done for me on my Rosewood Signature and Onyx, after my new room is complete (taking forever: I’m slowed down from bypass heart surgery) and I have had time to fully break in the Onyx, but for now suffice to say that Ana Mighty and Expert - to say nothing of insanely expensive Koetsu itself - are not the only options. Steve says that he refurbishes to Koetsu specs.

I’ll never sell these cartridges so I am not worried about resale, I’m just concerned about performance.

Keep us posted - my retip / reconstruction time is coming.