Koetsu Cartridges

Posted by: StuSaff on 16 February 2017

Good afternoon all.

I am looking to replace my 3 year old Cadenza black cartridge, and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on a possible replacement (My set-up is in my profile). I'm looking to spend probably up to £4K, auditioning cartridges as we all know is "tricky", so i thought a good place to start would be here. Im looking for something with a touch of warmth, mainly listen to pop, rock, not much classical. Koetsu cartridges seem to be well regarded, my question with these though is would they mate well with my superline (standard version, not E) i think the majority of Koetsu had outputs of 0.6mV, which i suspect would still be in the "headroom" of a standard superline but thought i would just check.

Any advice is good advice in my book

Thanks in advance

Stuart

Posted on: 16 February 2017 by PeterE

I've been using a Koetsu Urushi with a standard Superline/Supercap for several years now.  As far as I am concerned there's no problem in using a Koetsu cartridge with a standard Superline.

Top tip - use the 100 ohm impedance plug only; no capacitance plug.

Peter

Posted on: 16 February 2017 by Clay Bingham

+1 for Peter's comment. I use a Rosewood Signature through a standard Superline/HiCap with the same settings, plug and capacitance,  Peter has noted. Works great.

 

Clay

Posted on: 16 February 2017 by christoph

+1 for Peters and Clays comment ; i use a black through a Standard superline with the same settings. Works great too. please note, that koetsus are very sensitive for adjustment. if something is wrong, they sound boring and tired. my dealer did it for me.

 

christoph

Posted on: 16 February 2017 by StuSaff

Thanks for the replies (and on the superline loading!), I certainly am leaning that way but wanted to get some forum feedback. Do any of you run with the koetsu on SME V arm? No issues with compliance etc?

Posted on: 16 February 2017 by jon h

i am a fan of the dynavector XV1S

Posted on: 16 February 2017 by PeterE

I run my Urushi in an Aro.  However when Ken Kessler was raving about the Koetsu Sky Blue in HFN he was using it in a SME V arm.  A copy of that review appears on the Absolutes Sounds website in the bit about the Sky Blue.

Peter

Posted on: 16 February 2017 by varyat
jon honeyball posted:

i am a fan of the dynavector XV1S

I am too..

Posted on: 16 February 2017 by Clay Bingham
StuSaff posted:

Thanks for the replies (and on the superline loading!), I certainly am leaning that way but wanted to get some forum feedback. Do any of you run with the koetsu on SME V arm? No issues with compliance etc?

Today I run my Koetsu on my SME 10A but in the past I've used it on my Sota Star Sapphire/SME V. Sounds fabulous either way. No compliance issues in either case.

Posted on: 17 February 2017 by HansW

I am using a Dynavector XV1S currently. It is very good. It replaced a Koetsu Rosewood Signature which is not inferior in any way and much better  at getting the harmonic structure of music right. This is especially evident on voices and acoustic instruments but apparent on other instruments as well.

My next cartridge will be a Koetsu.

Best regards

Hans