Etsuro Gold MC Cartridge in house

[dan31]

I get the US distributors have set their pricing and must be happy with the volume of business.

One of the reasons I tend to buy US made products. The price of my electronics in the EU and Japan are much higher.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Conspiracy theories aside, congrats Mike for the new cartridge, it certainly is a beauty and I'm sure the sound is otherworldly.

yes; the sound is otherworldly. i listened for 5 hours last night slack jawed. decided to reluctantly go to bed at midnight. i had some perceptions of dynamic limitations of the CS Port tt that the Esturo Gold has dispelled completely. need more time to completely sort it out. and the published .3mv output of the Etsuro Gold also is maybe conservative. i'm using similar SPL settings on the dart pre volume i used on my .6mv output GFS.

maybe tonight i will awake from my dream and the world will be black and white again. guess i'll wait until i get there.

and btw; i post about an exciting new product and 16 of the first 20 posts are about the damn price. arggggh! we can do better than that, can't we?

let's just assume that people can do math and use google. lowest common denominator and all that stuff.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Mike, they say gentlemen NEVER talk about money. Nonsense, it's ALL they talk about Lol.

Re this cart synergy w CS Port, are you saying that initially the tt maybe sounded reticent or overly ordered, and this cart has added some pizzazz?

Or has the new cart brought a calmer presentation to what might have been too feisty before?

The Etsuro has some genetics in common w the Opus, yes? Same designer, or am I mistaken? And the Opus is known as an ocean of calm. So I'm thinking maybe the CS Port is a little more calm and collected, and this is ticking yr boxes.

 

[Tango]

The Etsuro has some genetics in common w the Opus, yes? Same designer, or am I mistaken? And the Opus is known as an ocean of calm. So I'm thinking maybe the CS Port is a little more calm and collected, and this is ticking yr boxes.

Interesting. Are they from the same designer?

 

[XV-1]

Mike, they say gentlemen NEVER talk about money. Nonsense, it's ALL they talk about Lol.

Re this cart synergy w CS Port, are you saying that initially the tt maybe sounded reticent or overly ordered, and this cart has added some pizzazz?

Or has the new cart brought a calmer presentation to what might have been too feisty before?

The Etsuro has some genetics in common w the Opus, yes? Same designer, or am I mistaken? And the Opus is known as an ocean of calm. So I'm thinking maybe the CS Port is a little more calm and collected, and this is ticking yr boxes.

You are mistaken Marc. the Opus is made by the same Japanese gentlemen that owns My Sonic Lab carts and OEM's the Opus for Air Tight.

Etsuro is made by Excel Sound co in Japan. most famous for the over achieving but reasonably priced Hana cartridges. They have OEM'd other carts I believe, but the secrecy of those seem to be in tact. That they can make a cart that is up there with the best is worth noting indeed.

 

[dan31]

Mike,

Have you found the cartridge sensitive to loading? Are you able to run it more open like the goldfinger?

 

[spiritofmusic]

You are mistaken Marc. the Opus is made by the same Japanese gentlemen that owns My Sonic Lab carts and OEM's the Opus for Air Tight.

Etsuro is made by Excel Sound co in Japan. most famous for the over achieving but reasonably priced Hana cartridges. They have OEM'd other carts I believe, but the secrecy of those seem to be in tact. That they can make a cart that is up there with the best is worth noting indeed.

My mistake. Sack my research assistant!

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Re this cart synergy w CS Port, are you saying that initially the tt maybe sounded reticent or overly ordered, and this cart has added some pizzazz?

Or has the new cart brought a calmer presentation to what might have been too feisty before?

The Etsuro has some genetics in common w the Opus, yes? Same designer, or am I mistaken? And the Opus is known as an ocean of calm. So I'm thinking maybe the CS Port is a little more calm and collected, and this is ticking yr boxes.

Marc,

it's complicated as far as my micro and macro dynamic expectations for the CS Port tt. the problem is that Mik's context are the most explosive tt's out there. so if the CS Port is a nuance champ, and detail and texture champ, but not quite as explosive as the Rockport's or even the Vyger's, what exactly might that mean objectively? the answer is (1) we don't know, and (2) i have to discover it for myself.

and then i start out with a generic phono cable on the CS Port, and a generic RCA on the CS Port phono. this past week i borrowed some upgrades for these two sets of cables that brought to life my GFS on the CS Port tt. so that got me quite a ways down the road on life and dynamics. and now the Etsuro Gold takes things much farther still.

putting it all together; now i'm hearing the CS Port as a very lively and even explosive turntable that has been unleashed. will it boggie with the Saskia and NVS? i know it gets much closer that i might have thought; but we will have to see about that. but no doubt the CS Port tt is no wall flower. yet it is still a texture, nuance, timbre, and detail champ extraordinaire. breathtaking even.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Hey Mike, very good is all very good. Of course, very really very very good indeed is even better Lol.

 

[djsina2]

You are mistaken Marc. the Opus is made by the same Japanese gentlemen that owns My Sonic Lab carts and OEM's the Opus for Air Tight.

Etsuro is made by Excel Sound co in Japan. most famous for the over achieving but reasonably priced Hana cartridges. They have OEM'd other carts I believe, but the secrecy of those seem to be in tact. That they can make a cart that is up there with the best is worth noting indeed.

I think Excel makes the Kuzma cartridges?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I think Excel makes the Kuzma cartridges?

i think Excel Sound has their hand in a number of undisclosed cartridge brands involving various bits and pieces. it's not reasonable to expect every cartridge brand can do the whole soup to nuts job. or that a brand just buys a ready made complete cartridge and calls it their own. so Excel has the expertise to really go all out. and this is the result.

and if you read the Etsuro website; it appears that Excel got an investor/partner to fund/assist with this brand; Dai-ichi Shoji Co., Ltd., whose company President's first name is.......drum roll please......Etsuro.

this has much in common with CS Port; who's President basically retired from running a large power supply company and started CS Port.

these guys have passion. and i can hear it.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Hey Mike, very good is all very good. Of course, very really very very good indeed is even better Lol.

Marc,

i think you are right. it's seems i am accessing a higher level of sonic main-lining here; the musical force is strong and unfettered. in a slightly different way i think the Saskia/Tosca/Anna Diamond does this too. i'm looking forward to exploring the implications of these amazing combinations.

you have a system building vision of where you are trying to get to, and then all of a sudden here it is. right here, right now.

 

[howiebrou]

Marc,

i think you are right. it's seems i am accessing a higher level of sonic main-lining here; the musical force is strong and unfettered. in a slightly different way i think the Saskia/Tosca/Anna Diamond does this too. i'm looking forward to exploring the implications of these amazing combinations.

you have a system building vision of where you are trying to get to, and then all of a sudden here it is. right here, right now.

Better than the VDH MS?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Better than the VDH MS?

it's not really fair for me to draw any clear conclusion on that based on my listening, as i had only glimpsed into the potential or my vdH Koa Master Signature 1.1mv......at 15 to 25 hours so far.

my 'hunch' is that i do expect that the Etsuro Gold is a better match for my CS Port turntable; not only that the Etsuro Gold's (most) ultra refinement matches the strength of the CS Port tt, but that the CS Port linear tracker does not handle really lightweight cartridges very well. they play just fine, but the cueing is not ideal as the counterweight is too heavy or the lighter one too light. you have to sort of tip-toe when cueing balancing it precariously. it's possible an in-between counterweight might solve that issue but i'm not enough of an engineer to really know that.

forgetting about the vdH MS for a minute; honestly i've never heard any cartridge do what i hear from the Etsuro Gold. but i know i've not heard anywhere near the best from the vdH MS. if i had to guess, would i expect that the vdH MS will ever enter the Etsuro Gold territory of performance? no. it might get into the 'veils lifted' part, but not the 'holistic humanity grain-less touch it connection' part.

with the Etsuro Gold, i get the sense that (for me) there will never be a 'but.......'.

YMMV, just my 2 cents. my views are based on my system and personal priorities.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Hello Mike,

Do you have any comparative sense of this Etsuro versus your Goldfinger Statement?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Hello Mike,

Do you have any comparative sense of this Etsuro versus your Goldfinger Statement?

Ron,

i'm not ready to go down that road. i don't disagree with Greg Weaver here about that........

https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/etsuro-gold-moving-coil-cartridge/

.......he does use the GFS as a direct compare......but i need more time to say that is all there is.

the GFS was sounding superb on the CS Port tt once i switched the phono cable and interconnect cable. but not what i'm hearing now. ask me again in a month or two.

i love my GFS.

a closer thing might be the Anna Diamond. right now not sure it's quite there, but it could be close. again; ask me in a few months.

it's 'game on' with 3 great tt's and 3 fun carts.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I feel that Greg’s description of the Etsuro Gold is very similar to how other reviewers have described the Air Tight Opus 1. Of course many Air Tight PC-1 Supreme owners (Greg’s Etsuro Gold replaced his PC-1) upgrade to the Opus 1. So it all makes sense.

 

[bonzo75]

You are mistaken Marc.

Isn't this a sticky somewhere?

 

[spiritofmusic]

Isn't this a sticky somewhere?

Ought to be a health warning.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I feel that Greg’s description of the Etsuro Gold is very similar to how other reviewers have described the Air Tight Opus 1. Of course many Air Tight PC-1 Supreme owners (Greg’s Etsuro Gold replaced his PC-1) upgrade to the Opus 1. So it all makes sense.

personally i have no experience with the Air Tight Opus 1, however i have spoken to Mik (who does own at least one) a few times about the Opus 1. and had asked him specifically what he thought relative to the Etsuro Gold. he said he does hold the Opus 1 in high regard, but that the Etsuro Gold was a next step up; and has a more grain-less, refined presentation, and had more energy and life. the Opus 1 was not 'polite' objectively, but in direct comparison seemed that way.

for myself, hearing the Etsuro Gold now 5 hours last night and 5 hours Thursday night; i continue to be awestruck as it seemingly climbs every obstacle i throw at it and captures the pure music.