Koetsu

[Johan K]

Thanks
Ma pleasure!

Which particular cartridges are you running?

 

[krugdoktor]

Tigereye Platinum (about 1 year old)
Carnelian Platinum (brandnew, got it on monday)

 

[Be Quiet...Listen]

Tigereye Platinum (about 1 year old)
Carnelian Platinum (brandnew, got it on monday)

How do you find them? Would you mind sharing some insights and experience?

 

[bonzo75]

Please allow me to introduce myself:
Here are my two beloved ones:
View attachment 115850View attachment 115851
View attachment 115852
View attachment 115853

Greetings from Vienna

Michael

welcome to the forum Michael. May I ask what is the rest of your analog set up and rest of the system? Thanks

 

[krugdoktor]

It‘s way too early for comparisons between the two Koetsus, the Carnelian arrived on monday so it is brand new.
The Tigereye is all about refinement. It can rock, but it is better with more lyrical pieces.
Rest of the system is:
Technics SL-1000r with a second arm: Glanz MH-94S
Tonearm-cables are Audioquest WEL Signature on the Glanz, Audioquest Leopard on the Technics arm.
SUT is a Koetsu (new type).
Phonostages are a Whest Titan Pro and an Audiospecials Phonolab.
Pre“amp“ is a (passive) Townshend Allegri+.
Poweramp in summer is a Nuprime STA-9, when room temperature is below 25 Centigrade power a Eternal Arts OTL Mk III.
Speakers are Quad ESL QA.
This System gives me great pleasure.
Greetings from Vienna
Michael

 

[Be Quiet...Listen]

Apparently the Carnelian is considered the quickest sounding of all Koetsu. I know its early days for you, but would feel that this might be correct?

 

[jadis]

It‘s way too early for comparisons between the two Koetsus, the Carnelian arrived on monday so it is brand new.
The Tigereye is all about refinement. It can rock, but it is better with more lyrical pieces.
Rest of the system is:
Technics SL-1000r with a second arm: Glanz MH-94S
Tonearm-cables are Audioquest WEL Signature on the Glanz, Audioquest Leopard on the Technics arm.
SUT is a Koetsu (new type).
Phonostages are a Whest Titan Pro and an Audiospecials Phonolab.
Pre“amp“ is a (passive) Townshend Allegri+.
Poweramp in summer is a Nuprime STA-9, when room temperature is below 25 Centigrade power a Eternal Arts OTL Mk III.
Speakers are Quad ESL QA.
This System gives me great pleasure.
Greetings from Vienna
Michael

Hi Michael, nice system, good to see a fellow Quad user (and of course , Koetsu) .

 

[DasguteOhr]

I did use the Jelco HS-30, as I’m at work now I can’t give you the 100% correct details, but if I remember… -the total weight of the complete headshell, shims and cartridge was something like 33-35grams. About 6-8 grams more then the original SL-1200 can manage. Thus the extra external ”super counterweight”

/ Jk

have fun with it. A little tip from me: align it with the cantilever. Lyra react massively to angling or after the only straight part on the cartridge the delrin plate with connection pins. vtf 1.77g the tonearm is slightly higher at the back than parallel to the platter sounds better for me.
but is only necessary if women's voices sound a bit sharp.
a kleos plays very clean never aggressive.
P.S 200-300 ohm phonopre

 

[Johan K]

have fun with it. A little tip from me: align it with the cantilever. Lyra react massively to angling or after the only straight part on the cartridge the delrin plate with connection pins. vtf 1.77g the tonearm is slightly higher at the back than parallel to the platter sounds better for me.
but is only necessary if women's voices sound a bit sharp.
a kleos plays very clean never aggressive.
P.S 200-300 ohm phonopre

Thank you for reminding. Yeah I’m very much aware of this. I always try to align after the cantilever. That is why no one wants to be around me trying to align a Koetsu… Then I’m more like a vulcano, than a human being?haha!! Very hard to see the cantilever on a Koetsu.

At my place the best I ever have gotten a Lyra is with 1,75g VTF, tonearm ever so slightly down from vertical on the VTA (towards the tonearm base) and ca 50-75 Ohm loading on my phonostage. At first when I started out with Lyra’s I had a hard time getting them sing. So I have had the chance to experiment a lot with Delos, Kleos and Atlas Lambda. The settings above is what works best in my system.

/ Jk

 

[DasguteOhr]

Thank you for reminding. Yeah I’m very much aware of this. I always try to align after the cantilever. That is why no one wants to be around me trying to align a Koetsu… Then I’m more like a vulcano, than a human being?haha!! Very hard to see the cantilever on a Koetsu.

At my place the best I ever have gotten a Lyra is with 1,75g VTF, tonearm ever so slightly down from vertical on the VTA (towards the tonearm base) and ca 50-75 Ohm loading on my phonostage. At first when I started out with Lyra’s I had a hard time getting them sing. So I have had the chance to experiment a lot with Delos, Kleos and Atlas Lambda. The settings above is what works best in my system.

/ Jk

sorry for offtopic. my experience is a little different. lyras sing with a bit above the tracking force recommendation. more natural and dynamic sound .the main thing is that you like it, it doesn't matter how you achieve your goal of enjoying music.
Exsample lyra clavis d.c

 

[earl3090]

Please allow me to introduce myself:
Here are my two beloved ones:
View attachment 115850View attachment 115851
View attachment 115852
View attachment 115853

Greetings from Vienna

Michael

One looks like a Tiger Eye, what is the other?

 

[krugdoktor]

Apparently the Carnelian is considered the quickest sounding of all Koetsu. I know its early days for you, but would feel that this might be correct?

Eventually a slight tendency in this direction

 

[krugdoktor]

One looks like a Tiger Eye, what is the other?

Carnelian

 

[earl3090]

Where can someone find all available Koetsu offerings online? Or do I have to go to Japan?

 

[jadis]

Where can someone find all available Koetsu offerings online? Or do I have to go to Japan?

It's best to write a dealer or a regional dealer. Unless you really have a planned trip to Japan, but I believe they do not stock all the models Koetsu makes.

 

[Hyperion]

Where can someone find all available Koetsu offerings online? Or do I have to go to Japan?

This overview is probably the best even though the new Leopard Platinum model is missing: https://www.koetsuaudio.com/cartridges

/ Marcus, www.perfect-sense.se

 

[Be Quiet...Listen]

Has anyone heard and can comment on the blue tiger eye?

 

[jadis]

It is with sadness when I heard that Fumihiko Sugano passed away last August 21. For us Koetsu lovers here, we would miss his legacy , and his great continuation of his father's endeavor. Treasure your Koetsus and take good care of them.

 

[Hyperion]

It is with sadness when I heard that Fumihiko Sugano passed away last August 21. For us Koetsu lovers here, we would miss his legacy , and his great continuation of his father's endeavor. Treasure your Koetsus and take good care of them.

Yes, we can confirm this very sad news from Japan earlier this week as well. We're hoping to get some more clarity soon.

/ Marcus, www.perfect-sense.se

 

[jadis]

I was about to post this bit of information last week regarding Koetsu's compliance and its 'matching with ideal tonearms' but I was waiting for the go signal from the original poster from a Koetsu user group and now that he gave me permission to share, here it is. Background: a certain member was asking if his Rega RB1000 will be a nice fit with his incoming Rosewood, and one member was insisting it was not a good match claiming Koetsus need high mass tonearms to sound its best. Another member gave some technical insights as the other side was quoting technical specs as well. Below are the his posts, which I find enlightening regarding the compliance and mass issue of the Koetsus and tonearms.

" Koetsus spec their compliance at 100Hz, while the compliance calculators you reference repeatedly use 10Hz.

A rule of thumb is that you multiply by 1.7 (some say more) to get the compliance at 10Hz. So modern Koetsus are really compliance 8.5 (at least) going off manufacturer specs, which gives a (assuming 9gm cart weight) and no fasteners weight a 12.5Hz resonant frequency which is not great but not terrible.
Then you add 3gm of fastener weight and you are down to 11+Hz."


"The Urushi Vermillion has a measured compliance (HiFi News) of 10-12. The published compliance spec of 5 for UV is the same as the Rosewood Signature. The RB1000's Effective Mass is 11.5gm. Assuming the RS has the same compliance, 9gm RS cart weight + 11.5gm EM of the RB1000 + 10-12 compliance actually gives a calculated resonant frequency of 10-11Hz, which is pretty bang on.

This is before mounting hardware is added, which will obviously skew things better still. So I understand your dedication to physics (which I share), but maybe this is not a good hill to die on?"

So the conclusion is that an Effective Mass of around 11g for a tonearm is fine for the Koetsus.