Have There Ever Been Fake Koetsu?

A number of years ago I saw lots of K’s on Ebay with gold pins. At the time, all K came with silver pins, or so it seemed. Also some poorly made bamboo boxes. @mulveling would know if these were genuine.

The only sources I heard talking about counterfeits were people in the business, with vested interests.

I’ve wondered about counterfeits too, and it’s kept me from buying second hand.

Nice photos, M!

I have owned many Koetsu’s over the years and either bought new or used from reputable sellers.  The rebuilds from Koetsu and Anna Mighty sound are the only way to go, I have had several Cartridges from Anna Mighty Sound and they are absolutely top notch in their care for rebuilds.  I saw a Onyx stone body for sale on Audiomart recently and it was definitely messed with as the gold trim on the bottom was sourced from a standard rosewood cartridge, I asked about it and got no response, he sold it to some poor buyer that had no idea what he was getting.  Be careful as some of the other comments earlier as there are a lot of retips out there being pawned off as stock cartridges 

Absolutely - some of the hacked up Koetsus being pawned off - ugh, wish I could add comments to these ads. And yes, I too mentioned Ana Mighty sound, and I certainly didn't intend to denigrate them or lump them in with other 3rd party re-tippers. Though I haven't had a Koetsu done by them yet, the work they have shown is MOST impressive!

Photomicrograph of a diamond cantilever shows how much glue to expect. Sorry, can't post it. - anyway, invisibly much.

A number of years ago I saw lots of K’s on Ebay with gold pins. At the time, all K came with silver pins, or so it seemed. Also some poorly made bamboo boxes. @mulveling would know if these were genuine.

@terry9 Some (most?) of the older Koetsus really did have gold pins. My vintage Musashino Onyx has gold pins - technically I think these were produced (in part or whole, not sure) by Musashino Audio Lab for Koetsu. Today, Koetsu treats them as Koetsu all the same.

For the vintage models, there are so many variations, that beyond a smell test you really need a Koetsu historian (more than me, I top out at "enthusiast" lol) to know what you’re wading into. Hearing that old Onyx for the first time is one of my top 3 most vivid audiophile memories - it was absolutely amazing, and I have no doubt it was 100% original, but alas its stylus was worn and it was showing very poor tracking performance on inner grooves! Now I have it as a hybrid of old and new style Koetsu (modern Onyx coils, cantilever, and stylus, but kept original magnets). I can tell you the modern Koetsu guts are much more detailed & punchy sounding, and the new Platinum magnets are smoother and warmer to balance that out. Ah, but those old coils surely did have some sweet magic in them. 

The older Koetsu cartridges did indeed have gold pins the newer ones have the silver colored pins.  I have tried the older ones with the gold pins and while they sounded good I prefer the newer ones as stated better detail and dynamics, the rolled off highs and flabby bass that you read about is hogwash these cartridges to me lack for nothing.  My other favorite cartridges are Jan Allaerts MC2 and Haniwa HCTR-01 for reference.  You can’t go wrong with a Koetsu…