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Koetsu surprise

I have to hand it to my wife.  Like many of us, I have always plotted and schemed my own system upgrades based on my interests and perceived best bang for the buck.  I have been concentrating on the analog front end for the past 4 years and have been listening to a lot more music.  I had been enjoying a Lyra Delos for its detail and upper register energy, a SoundSmith Zephyr Star for its amazing instrumental separation and full frequency balance and an Ortofon MC A90, that I purchased used of Agon.  Thought I was done with cartridges for a long time.
So when on the eve of our 20th wedding anniversary I received a little square box from her, I had no clue that she would gift me something for the stereo.  But there in front of me is a pretty little Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum!  
Its hard to describe the disbelief.  I had never considered a Koetsu.  My impression of them was that they were rolled off, romantic, old school cartridges that had been bettered long ago by the likes of Ortofon, Lyra and SoundSmith.  Never really read up on their cartridges given that their cheapest models were about as much as I would ever consider spending.  
Fast forward one month and I have put about 40 hours on the RSP.  From the first needle drop I was very impressed with the midrange presence and the utter ease and extension into the very highest frequencies. The bass did sound a little soft in the first several hours but has tightened up considerably.  It sounded its best loaded with 100 Ohms and mounted on my Mørch DP-6 with heavy brass headshell screws from SoundSmith.  I currently have it on my Jelco 750D with a Jelco Rosewood headshell.  
I don't think any of these arms are the best match but the RSP does sound quite special on all of them.  Just purchased a 40 year old Fidelity Research FR-64S.  Can't wait to listen to the RSP on this arm.  Any recommendations on the FR-64S/RSP combo are welcome.

This whole experience has taught me an interesting lesson about assumptions in our little hobby.  You just have to listen before you judge.  This is a quantum leap in musical enjoyment that would never have happened if left to my own devices. Anyone else have this type of experience?  First time you heard something that changed your mind about what you thought you knew about audio?

I married up!

128x128karl_desch
mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,774 posts
 
That’s awesome! She did amazing choosing a Koetsu Platinum. I love my Platinums (Rosewood, Onyx, Jade, Coralstone); stuck with Koetsu ever since I discovered I had a hard time warming up to the upper range Ortofons (Windfeld, etc).

I’ve got a Fidelity Research FR64fx that sounds awesome with ’em; the F64S should be even nicer (and looks cooler too). Alignment can be tricky on these 10" FR arms; I really like my Mint LP protractor for that.

I also really like these carts on my Graham Phantom Supreme.

And I DEFINITELY remember first seeing Koetsu carts advertised in needledoctor / music direct around 2006 -- that $15K Coralstone, $8K Onxy. 3.8K Urushi Blue -- and thinking how stupid that pricing seemed, especially when the main differences seemed to be wood vs stones, paint colors, etc. I wondered why would anyone pay thee prices when carts like Ortofons are much higher tech. Years later I actually got to HEAR a Koetsu (I didn’t seek out the audition), and then it was all over for me.
karl_desch's avatar
karl_desch OP
422 posts
 
Interesting story mulveling. Glad she bought it, I could never bring myself to do it... and I'm the crazy audiophile guy!

I am going to try to align using a custom Accutrak arc protractor which I have used for other arms.  Like the MINT LP, these are printed out for each tonearm based on the tonearm geometry.  The advantage of the MINT is surely the mirror.  I let you know how I fair. 

noromance, from what I see, the Rosewood Headshell is actually a hybrid with metal interfacing with the cartridge and rosewood and brass on the top.  The wire connections are supposed to be of a higher grade as well.  

Exciting...
terry9
2,209 posts
 
Got to hand it to the ladies - my KRSP came the same way, but for a major birthday.

I use mine on a Trans-Fi air bearing tonearm, and a DIY air bearing turntable. What I like best about the Trans-Fi Terminator (don't blame me, I didn't name it) is the low cost / high quality, in which clever use of standard material is used instead of exotic machining. Second best, is tweakability. Third, it's a low pressure system using an aquarium pump, so none of the oil-filtering hassles. Fourth, you buy direct from the owner, who promptly goes on a mission to make the tonearm work for you.

I adjust the mass of the wand with brass weights to accommodate different cartridges. For the KRSP, I use two 5 gram brass weights and one 2 gram weight on the front of the arm wand, and that seems to work well.

May I also suggest an ultrasonic record cleaner? My dealer could detect no wear whatsoever after 400 hours of use - which means that the increased sound quality is just about free.

Good luck!

larryi
3,715 posts
 

The entire Koetsu line has a saturated, harmonically dense sound that is quite musical sounding.  If you want it slightly leaner and a little more like other top end cartridges, then the stone bodies Koetsu would do the trick.  The wood and lacquer cartridges are a little warmer sounding.  If there is any shortcoming with their line, it would be that they don't track quite so well with some of those freak records designed to torture test cartridges; but with regular music, they track perfectly.

There are not that many other cartridges that have the same sort of warm and relaxed sound that also manage to avoid sounding muffled or soggy.  Allaerte, comes to mind, but, some of those make Koetsu cartridges seem bargain priced.  Perhaps the Ortofon SPU models, but, they require arms designed for the integrated headshell.

lewm
12,429 posts
 
It is said that the FR64S and 66S are great matches for the Koetsu cartridges.  It is also said that the FR headshells are not so great, so I would consider finding another headshell to use with the FR/Koetsu combo.  But high tonearm effective mass afforded by the FRs is good.  I own both a Koetsu Urushi and an FR64S, but I have never yet mated them.  (I use a Dynavector headshell on my FR64S.) You actually own two products that are both loved and hated by different factions among the cognoscenti: Koetsu and FR64S.
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