"HELP" tired Koetsu

Twl, I have also liked the cartridges from Japan myself. I was a big fan of the FR you mentioned and the old Dennon 103D, I owned a Shinnon Red Boron Improved(not perfect but fun), loved the Talasman Virtuoso Boron. Never could affort the Koetsu thing( a friend had a "nude" Rosewood Signature) The best cartridge I ever owned though was a chain smoking Euro trash unit. An old EMT. Man I wish I had that thing back!
I bet the Shelter is very good. I just wish the thing put out some more juice. Do they have a web site? I can't seem to find anything about them or anyone that sells them.

Ecclectique, have you seen the price of a new Koetsu Rosewood Signature?

Yes, the EMT's were nice. That was in the old days. If they only kept on that track instead of the one they are on now, I wouldn't be saying this stuff. Some of the Ortofons are still good, but no reviewers pay any attention to them. It's like there is some kind of conspiracy to eliminate musical cartridges from reviews or something.

The Shelter is kind of hard to find out about, but there are a couple of reviews on it on the web. They come up on a Google search.

These cartridges are for the people who liked the old style Japanese MC sound, and not everybody does. But for music, you can't beat them. They keep the music "whole" and don't break it into a hundred little audiophile pieces. There is a presentation in these cartridges that gives a lifelike feel, and the emotion is conveyed in a unique way. They don't attempt to achieve numeric perfection, but seek to convey the emotion and soul of the musical performance, and that is what I want out of my system.

Twl, that is the very thing I liked about the EMT is that it had a very coherent sound from top to bottom and didn't sound like Hi Fi. You know anything about the XYZ's? I am wondering about the new Sumiko Blackbird too? I still may ditch the whole TT mess after 30 years. This is good stuff though! I need to learn more about the current transformers.

Sorry to stear this thread in a different direction.

I know that the high-end ZYX R-100 Fuji is one killer cartridge. It's as good as a Shelter 901, but a little different in the way it does things. It is slightly better than the 901 on small scale music, and the 901 is a little better on large scale stuff. Nothing that I know of can beat the 901 for accurate bass response, and natural tonality. Not too sure how the lower end ZYX stuff is. I heard that their $1k model was the OEM for the Monster Alpha cartridge. Not sure about that.

I have not heard the Sumiko Blackbird, but I'm not holding my breath about it. It is supposed to be an upgrading of the Blue Point Special, and is even on a similar platform. The BPS was a barking dog, and needed replacing in a major way. If Sumiko was smart, they'd resurrect the old Supex MC line, and that would sell like hotcakes, just like it used to, back in the day.