Koetsu cartridges.

[Progmeister]

Are Koetsu cartridges worth the money? I do realise that they are manufactured i relatively small numbers and hand made etc etc but is their sound quality really worth stupid price tags or is it down to kudos and status? The old oneupmanship bullshit. I say this because i recently had the opportunity to hear a Koetsu Rosewood which sounded pretty good though in a blind test on the same turntable i preferred an Audio Technica OC9 MLIII. I can't help thinking there's a lot of elitist shite being written about Koetsu cartridges. I'll get me coat.............

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Applemarc has got a good one.

There are some real sleepers out there. I payed about a tenner for the cart I am using at the moment on a whim, not expecting it to be any good, and it is very good, ask Dave DSJR. Ebay is fun trying cheap carts when you find a sleeper.

[zebbo]

Are Koetsu cartridges worth the money? I do realise that they are manufactured i relatively small numbers and hand made etc etc but is their sound quality really worth stupid price tags or is it down to kudos and status? The old oneupmanship bullshit. I say this because i recently had the opportunity to hear a Koetsu Rosewood which sounded pretty good though in a blind test on the same turntable i preferred an Audio Technica OC9 MLIII. I can't help thinking there's a lot of elitist shite being written about Koetsu cartridges. I'll get me coat.............

It's the same as everything else Prog, you'll either like them or you won't, you won't know until you try it in your kit. I've tried the Black and the Rosewood. I really loved the sound quality, (accurate? who knows and I don't really care), but tracking on both was quite poor on tougher tracks. Also, TT's/arms are just so variable that you can't make sweeping statements, what works for one won't for another as always.

[applemarc]

I’m going to try to answer this if I can

Many years ago I had a Roksan Xerxes with an SME V tone arm and Koetsu Rosewood I thought this combination was great and the Koetsu was about £900 a bit cheaper than the arm. Then my dealer at the time The Sound Organization London said I should listen to the SME 20 and in due course bought the 20 also they had a client that had bought a Lyra Parnassus but it did not work well in his system would I like a trade swop one for the other. I listened to both and agreed a straight swop at this time my Koetsu was almost 3 years old the Parnassus was 6 months old. Well after about 3 month I began to wish I had not done the deal I found the Parnassus to be a bit clinical with the SME setup but funds where low so I kept it. Anyway some years later my son aged about 6 decided he wanted to use my Turntable and managed to break the Parnassus it was insured so I bought a replacement Koetsu Rosewood the price had shot up so not a signature. I have since changed that rosewood to the Jade Platinum which now costs stupid money here I got it as I had a trade and the dealer thought it was just a Jade not the Jade platinum his lost.
So for me it’s not about one up man ship I like the sound the main problem is where can you here different cartridges the likes of
Van Den Hull, Kieski, Koetsu, Lyra and Grado just to name a couple
But you can buy a Koetsu from Japan for half the UK cost

[zebbo]

They DO have a special quality about them that's hard to describe, when on song the hairs on the back of your neck bristle. The high frequencies on many cartridges "sparkle" the Koetsus I listened to "twinkled" don't know if you'll get what I'm talking about !
I can, of course, only describe in the context of the few cartridges I've used.

[applemarc]

Yes I understand but they do have to be setup properly. But I would have a real problem paying UK prices for them someone is making a huge profit on the sale of the

[zebbo]

I've only ever bought second hand, until now.

[applemarc]

Buying a cartridge is very hard now you just can't compare

[Daniel Quinn]

when it comes to cartridges , I am bordering on the objective because they seem to be bestowed with magical or mythical qualities .

they have five parts [ 6 if you count cartridge pins] they turn kinetic energy in to electrical energy via the use of magnets and a conductor , usually copper .

Accordingly they are the sum of their parts no more /no less and for me they can be judged on these parts .

I prefer boron cantilevers with fine line diamond mounted on the tip ,I find this preferable to aluminium cantilevers that are bent in to shape of a L and the dimond is pushed through a hole . I find these are more dynamic , airy , crisp and sparkly .

I have had a sapphire cantilever on a ZYX is was good and I liked it but I have a suspicion sapphire is more fragile .

It is no coincidence that all major cartridge manufactures swap aluminium for boron as they go up the price range -both ortofon and Audio technica do . The OC9 III as a boron cantilever

I doubt very much that fine jewelled cantilevers bring much else to the table .similarly exotic magnets or exotic coils .

Beyond 1k I have difficulty understanding what any cartridge brings to the table that a good one below 1k does, I suspect it would be a difference I could live without given their inherent fragility and built in obsolescence.

I have an AT95E at home , it is so far away from a good moving coil that I simply cannot listen to it .

[zebbo]

Well, unless you try for yourself, you will never KNOW conclusively, simple as that.
I personally wouldn't pay more than a grand for a cartridge either.