Here’s a picture of a great friends Blue Tiger Eye. Stunning piece and sounds equally as good!
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Koetsu
- Thread starter jadis
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If you send them to me Travis, I’ll buy you a coffee…!!!
Stand in line Johan!! Travis lives a lot closer to me
Ohh Noo !!!Stand in line Johan!! Travis lives a lot closer to me
I guess it would take more then just coffee then… haha
!
Ekki - thank you very much for your posts.
Your blog was part of the reason I embarked on my Koetsu journey - and now I have obtained in relatively short order 4 Koetsus cartridges. They are truly addictive!
I agree completely regarding Koetsus actually being medium compliance. I believe Jadis (cross-)posted a post I made from the Facebook Koetsu users group some time back where I made the same point - backed with measured data from Hifi News (Paul Miller includes compliance measurements in his suite of cartridge testing). I recall copping a bit of flak from other members of the FB group too...!
I agree as well that Koetsus do well "as a rule of thumb" with 1:20 SUTs. The earliest Koetsu SUT I have been able to track down (even earlier than the wooden enclosure SUT we are familiar with) were Kanno/Koetsu "cross branded" units. These come in a distinctive light blue powder coat, and surprise surprise, are 1:18 ratio. They were rumoured to use vintage Western Electric transformers.
There is only one small point where I might beg to differ - the Vermillion has a published internal resistance of 2.5 ohms. While having alternating silver and copper coils, I recall a photo from a forum showing the internals of a Vermillion that showed half the coil windings of other Urushi cartridges. The Vermillion is a very special and unique example indeed amongst the Koetsu lineup.
Your blog was part of the reason I embarked on my Koetsu journey - and now I have obtained in relatively short order 4 Koetsus cartridges. They are truly addictive!
I agree completely regarding Koetsus actually being medium compliance. I believe Jadis (cross-)posted a post I made from the Facebook Koetsu users group some time back where I made the same point - backed with measured data from Hifi News (Paul Miller includes compliance measurements in his suite of cartridge testing). I recall copping a bit of flak from other members of the FB group too...!
I agree as well that Koetsus do well "as a rule of thumb" with 1:20 SUTs. The earliest Koetsu SUT I have been able to track down (even earlier than the wooden enclosure SUT we are familiar with) were Kanno/Koetsu "cross branded" units. These come in a distinctive light blue powder coat, and surprise surprise, are 1:18 ratio. They were rumoured to use vintage Western Electric transformers.
There is only one small point where I might beg to differ - the Vermillion has a published internal resistance of 2.5 ohms. While having alternating silver and copper coils, I recall a photo from a forum showing the internals of a Vermillion that showed half the coil windings of other Urushi cartridges. The Vermillion is a very special and unique example indeed amongst the Koetsu lineup.
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I just bought a Koetsu last week from my dealer and he said nothing about the company being shut down
I don't know this to be fact, but I could see a dealer withholding that information as it may prevent the sale of the cartridge if the potential buyer isn't assured of a factory rebuild.
No matter what happens regarding Koetsus future plans I think the cartridges they have thus far made will always have a lot of significant value to collectors. If they shut down as a company my plan would probably be to just lightly use my own Koetsu until it finally starts showing signs of wearing out and then box it up and save it. When I need a Koetsu fix I can play some of the many, many CDs of records I recorded of my Koetsu in action.
But I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the company survives. Plan A has always been to have them rebuild my cartridge.
Well. there really has been no official word from any dealers around the world that it has been shut down. There is a statement of something like a temporary freeze in the company's production in respect for the mourning period as practiced in Japan. Dealers will have some old stocks here and there, and the news of Fumihiko's passing did not stop a lot of analog lovers from buying whatever Koetsu models that is out there. Be Quiet Listen just posted a few of his new arrivals not too long ago.
To those who have multiple Koetsus, they have a Plan B.
When the news came out re Sugano's passing, my Koetsu friends told me immediately that we need to be super careful in our usage, no more accidents. To many, there is no other place to rebuild a Koetsu other than in the Sugano led company. There is no plan B really that one can think of other than just being extra careful and improve our cleaning habits with respect to the stylus/cantilever.
If you take care of them (not hand cueing or playing uncleaned flea market finds, for example) and use a TT with a dustcover which covers the tonearm the internals should stay clean.
Then the only things that wear out, deteriorate and break are damper and stylus. Koetsu uses pre-aged dampers for stability. How long will they last? Who knows? UV and ozone are the natural enemies of rubber, so I guess some common sense comes into play here. Rubber might be expected to stiffen with time, so maybe the compliance of a Koetsu will naturally go down with age, making the legends about needing heavy arms more true with time?
Worn styli are fix-able things, as long as you go to the right person. Always remember - just retip - not replace the cantilever!! Which means avoiding Soundsmith (I have seen terrible glued cantilever hack jobs), avoiding VDH (same as Soundsmith, plus they vandalise your cartridge with their scratched codes), and considering Ana Mighty Sound (EU) or VAS (USA - can retip using the same Ogura stylus Koetsu uses). Maybe Chris at AllClear Audio (Australia) though he only has access to microridge styli.
I run a retipped 40 year old longbody Rosewood that sounds incredible with some material, so I do not think we have to worry too much.
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Agree on avoiding Soundsmith. 15 years ago, they told me the cost was $300 for a cantilever/stylus refitting. I saw the work, and the angle of the cantilever is much steeper than Koetsu's. I think it's color was pinkish. The owner told me many years later, that it sounded so horrible he never played it anymore. So there you are.If you take care of them (not hand cueing or playing uncleaned flea market finds, for example) and use a TT with a dustcover which covers the tonearm the internals should stay clean.
Then the only things that wear out, deteriorate and break are damper and stylus. Koetsu uses pre-aged dampers for stability. How long will they last? Who knows? UV and ozone are the natural enemies of rubber, so I guess some common sense comes into play here. Rubber might be expected to stiffen with time, so maybe the compliance of a Koetsu will naturally go down with age, making the legends about needing heavy arms more true with time?
Worn styli are fix-able things, as long as you go to the right person. Always remember - just retip - not replace the cantilever!! Which means avoiding Soundsmith (I have seen terrible glued cantilever hack jobs), avoiding VDH (same as Soundsmith, plus they vandalise your cartridge with their scratched codes), and considering Ana Mighty Sound (EU) or VAS (USA - can retip using the same Ogura stylus Koetsu uses). Maybe Chris at AllClear Audio (Australia) though he only has access to microridge styli.
I run a retipped 40 year old longbody Rosewood that sounds incredible with some material, so I do not think we have to worry too much.
Spot on for the rubber concerns but mostly, this will affect the old long bodies, where the rubber clearly is visible from the plate cover. One guy showed me this, just to get an idea of a broken rubber support.
Somehow, when you see a finished Koetsu rebuild, you will immediately spot how clean and sturdy and 'right' it becomes. And that is , naturally , as it should be, from the makers itself. Below is another damaged long body Onyx of a customer of mine, rebuilt in 2007 and despite the fading color of the Onyx, the cartridge just looks 'right' and perfect.
And now this document is a collector's item. LOL
Interesting you mentioned the TT dustcover (which is now a rarity, but which I truly like and even consider a must in my TT choice). My VPI HW19 MKII came with a dustcover (tall option to support the cuing lever of the ET2 arm) and I was almost obsessed with keeping the ET2 dust-free that I would add an extra cloth to absorb dust before it hits the dustcover, like a double layered protection. And I can attribute the longevity of my Black (8 years) and Rosewood Signature (7 years on the VPI and 5 years on an Avid Diva with dustcover and cloth as well). Then 4 yrs for the Urushi Tsugaru on a Linn Akurate with dustcover, and now running a Blue Lace for 5 months. And totally agree, do not play those $1 sidewalk specials on the streets, or bargain bins on real LP stores that are heavily scratched.
I basically have a lifetime supply with careful use. And I am very careful. But I'd like to keep them all in peak shape, so my plan B would be to give "Groove tickler" (ebay retipper) a shot, starting with my Jade. From what I've seen, it appears he will respect the original design intent of Koetsu most, out of the USA-based retippers. Anyone who would put a ruby / sapphire cantilever on Koetsu is right out of contention with me, off the bat (lol) - one very popular USA retipper with very long lead times has done this a lot (they always seem to show up on the used markets with only 10-15 hours - it's SoundSmith lol). Next is the mounting of stylus to boron; it should be less sloppy with less glue used and not look lie a Benz or Van den Hul with a mound of glue - that's a perfectly legitimate mounting technique btw, but it's not the Koetsu way. Koetsu uses an interface fit.
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The damaged rubber you see in that pics is just a coil cover, and does not have any part in making the sound (besides perhaps some slight vibration damping). You could in fact remove it completely. It's just for protecting the coil. Many Japanese manufacturers still use a cover like this. Koetsu switched to the metal plate a long time ago. The actual damper piece is of course crucial to sound, but it would not be made of the same material, and is well protected inside. And I'd assume it's much more shelf-stable than that outer rubber cover. VAS uses the ugliest improvised cover I've ever seen on some of their rebuilds, and I'd avoid them on that point alone. If you have no sense of aesthetic you shouldn't work on a Koetsu.
The ruby -cantilever'd Koetsus are really a horror show. I hate him for doing that
And that simple Koetsu rebuild certificate still looks exactly the same circa 2017 - 2018 when I had 3 done
I had to break down and finally get a cover for my table:
because of this!
because of this!
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