I had my Urushi retipped by Expert Stylus in the UK, recently. They installed a new stylus but did not replace the cantilever. Their work is neat like the original. I could contrast it with a replacement sapphire cantilever plus OCL stylus done by SoundSmith. The latter has a big gob of glue at the base of the stylus, as seen in some of these photos. Since SS replaced both cantilever and stylus (on my Grace Ruby), I have to infer that their replacement cantilever/stylus came to them from their supplier with the stylus mounted as described. Both cartridges sound excellent; the Urushi sounds perhaps better than ever, but that is an unreliable "feeling".
Have There Ever Been Fake Koetsu?
There are as few trusted grey market sellers like 2Juki. I have always wondered why he can sell a Koetsu at about 1/3 of what the US importer lists it at. Yes I understand the markup is pretty high for the US side, and that certainly accounts for all of it.
This question is not about 2Juki, but rather a second hand Koetsu. There happens to be an attractively priced Jade Platinum on this site, and its from a long time member. It has caught my eye.
But I do wonder if there are Koetsu out there floating around in the 2nd hand market that are not real...fakes.
Any thoughts or experiences?