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Koetsu Restoration

I just finished a weekend listening to a Koetsu Black I had restored by Soundsmith and thought I should share this with other members. I had it restored with Soundsmith's Ruby Cantilever and Optimized Contour. Their top of the line restoration. I have to confessed I never expected the out of the box performance I heard on this cartridge. I installed it on a second system and my wife said it sounded better than my main system which is $10K more expensive. The level of expression and musicality on this restored cartridge was beyond my expectations. Enough said! Before you discard your old cartridge you may want to consider a restoration. I did and I am really happy with the results. This is the first time I have had a cartridge restored and I am already considering the restoration of two other classic cartridges I have.
dserran
eweedhome
227 posts
 
Many thanks for this post. I have a 20 year old Koetsu Black that is still quite functional, but some theorize that age alone ought to point me toward replacement or restoration. My only concern about any of the restorers is that I get the impression that the Koetsu will come back with more "air" and "detail" after the rebuilds...which scares me, because one listener's "air" and "detail" is another listener's painful brightness and edge. (I talked to 2 restorers about this, one in the States and one in the UK, who told me to expect this change.)

So, could you tell us just a bit about how the sound is different on the rebuild from what it was before - recognizing that you can't A-B them, of course.

Many thanks.
genesis168's avatar
genesis168
409 posts
 
IMO, once a cartridge has been rebuild/retipped by someone other than the original maker, it will be considered a different cartridge. The fact that if it sounds better or worse.....is up to the owner to decide. Some can sound better, some just different and I know some who dislike them after the fact.

I have a few cartridges I will be sending to Soundsmith as they are not made anymore and the company defunct. Only third party people can fix them. So will try them. I believe them to be highly reputable.

If you like your Koetsu to sound like a Koetsu, then you have to send it back to them.

Congrats to Dserran. Thanks for sharing your experience and continue to enjoy your new toy.
lewm
12,567 posts
 
Genesis said it all.
cmk
397 posts
 
Hi Dserren
May I know what VTF are you using with the Black now and what was the original recommended VTF?

What is the TT setup of your main rig if I might enquire?

Thanks
pauly
1,012 posts
 
Soundsmith does a retip on Koetsus, they do not (as far as I know) rebuild the Koetsu. The only folks that do that are Koetsu themselves. I have had a Soundsmith retip twice on my Rosewood, and sonically it was at least as good as the original.

Sadly the Soundsmith tip proved very fragile in my environment and I lost both tips after a couple of hundred hours play time. Peter quite graciously retipped my cart at no charge, no questions asked the second time round, but I decided to have a factory rebuild (and upgrade to Signature level) this last time.

To your pint, it is definitely worth while to have a vintage cart retipped/rebuilt as they normally have a lot of life left in the motors after the tip has expired.

Regards
Paul
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