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KOETSU ROSEWOOD DILEMMA

I have an old Koetsu Rosewood Longbody from long ago. It came with a Linn LP12/Ittok, so cost nothing. But it had no stylus, and I’ve never heard it.

The stylus was sheared clean off. Some colorful fuzz was left at the scene, and forensics showed it to be red and green woolen fibers. The culprit was a clumsy audiophile in a red-and-green sweater (Christmas colors, so maybe too much egg-nog) who snagged the diamond in his cuff.

Despite the violence, the cantilever is perfect — straight and true, with a beautifully beveled flat tip for seating the stone and setting SRA. It’s not hole-through, so probably was an adhesive-only bond. Coils are fine. Suspension seems fine — sitting on a stationary LP at the right VTF, it rides just right, not low nor high — and compliance feels in the right ballpark. All in all it’s very clean, and produces sound. There’s no erosion of the gold plating, so it may have been newish. 91447 is carved into the aluminum, and an “S” — does S indicate a “signature” model?

Is it worth retipping?

As you can see, I know nothing, so any suggestions are welcome, even negative ones, especially from those who know the cartridge, and have experience with retipping.

My intention now is to keep the boron rod and just add a diamond — it should be quite close to the original sound — but I’m open to change. Installing a new cantilever+stylus is easier and less expensive, but the resulting sound is an unknown, maybe better, maybe not, maybe not Koetsu. Why have a Koetsu if it doesn’t sound like one?

Stylus-type is an issue too. I can’t even find what the original stylus was, I believe a type of hyper-elliptical. I think a fancier cut would add detail but not alter the sound otherwise, but might be wrong.

So — as I know nothing, and my few ideas may be wrong, guidance is needed.


128x128bimasta
terry9
931 posts
 
Karl, that is wonderful news! You say that it sounds as it always did - that's new data for me. Well done, sir!
lewm
6,770 posts
 
Karl, My own Urushi is now about 8-9 years old and has been out of use for a few years now, as I was investigating various MM and MI cartridges and lately obsessing alternately over an Audio Technica ART7 and a ZYX UNIverse (each mounted on its own turntable).  Plus I have been playing with old Ortofons, MC7500 and MC2000.  The Urushi is just lying there begging to be either used or sold.  Then I too saw that SS was offering a boron cantilever and have thought of having my Urushi refurbished.  The first step, however, would be to send it to Peter L for an assessment; I am not at all sure it even needs work.  Anyway, thanks for your report.  I would be interested to learn how you come to feel about the SS-retipped Koetsu after more time has passed.  So please keep reporting. (By the way, the ZYX UNI is the champ of them all, in my system, in my opinion, pending a re-review of the Urushi.)

To bimasta:  The last thing I would worry about is the notion that Koetsu would cheat you by re-installing inferior parts into your Rosewood body.  You don't understand the importance of honor to the Japanese.  Yes, you'll pay "through the nose", but you will get exactly what you pay for.
karl_desch's avatar
karl_desch
207 posts
 
@lewm I most certainly will put some more hours on the cartridge and feedback.  But my initial impression is that the cantilever/stylus that SS uses for Koetsu repairs (and the work Peter did to put Humpty Dumpty back together again) allows the inner Koetsu sound to come through.   Maybe most of this character is due to the specific Koetsu magnets/coils/dampening?  

I also like ZYX and owned a Yatra for a couple years.  That cartridge was really sensitive to set up and tonearm pairing.  In the end I thought it to be too polite a cartridge for my tastes. I understand the UNI is in a different league!
lewm
6,770 posts
 
UNI is special. I have to wonder whether its offspring, the UNI II, etc, etc, are really progressively better or just progressively more expensive. Those who own the later models do claim that they are even better.

With Koetsu, the wood bodies are credited for the sonic characteristics. But if that is the case, then I don’t know how to explain the apparent fact that the stone-bodied models preserve the Koetsu "sound" while performing even better, or so it is said. You inferred that the original Koetsu cantilever is boron, like that which can be had from SS. Is that the case? If so, one would hope for not much (or not any) degradation associated with the SS re-tip.
PS.  I just checked at the Koetsu website.  Indeed, the Urushi does come with boron cantilever.  I probably knew that once.
biznipian's avatar
biznipian
16 posts
 
i have many of these fine koetsu units and while koetsu will rebuild it there are other options...van den hull will do  a great job about 800 really fine work also soundsmith about 1000 will do a great job also. there are many fine craftsmen who can restore it to a nice playing unit. my best result was soundsmith but van den hull is great also. i rebuilt a onyx at koetsu at a cost of 5000 and it was wonderful but honestly van den hull did a wonderful rebuild as well. dont go nuts do what you can afford ignore the snobs.
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