Tonearms that work well with better Koetsu stone body cartridges


Hi

I have my heart set on buying one of the better stone body Koetsu cartridges. The problem is I’m having a problem finding a tonearm that’s supposed to be a great match. I’ve read that they sound best with higher mass tonearms. The problem is, not every manufacturer will list the effective mass of their tonearms. I am leaning towards the Kuzma 4 point (11”) and the Ikeda 407. Does anyone know the effective mass of the Ikeda 407? If there are any others that work well with the Koetsu’s please let me know. I prefer new, not used. Thank you.

Scot
scothurwitz

Showing 1 response by whart

Not that you are going to go out and buy one, but the stone bodies work really well on my Kuzma Airline linear tracker. Yes, the arm has high horizontal but not vertical mass, though according to Franc, the design should not cause undue stress on the cartridge. The arm seems to like a lower compliance cartridge based on my experience using some pretty high end cartridges from the likes of Lyra and Airtight. I’ve had the arm a long time. Not sure if this applies to other linear trackers, including the ET2 and Trans-Fi, which are probably easier to get into financially.
The stone body (I have two) really made the difference in my system-bringing up the bottom end (and of course that famous midrange).