Koetsu Blue Lace Onyx vs. Coralstone

Thanks @terry9
My phono stage is a VAC Renaissance SE with the LL1931 built-in, and is chock-full of nude Vishays (I counted 36), including the loading slots. I’d previously borrowed a non-SE; the SE model’s Jupiter beeswax caps and nude Vishays make quite a positive difference. I figure I might as well go all-out to the Ag SUT at this point; agreed that the K&K prices are extremely reasonable! What loading value did you settle on for your Koetsu?

Loading is record dependent, to me. I like values between 30 and 500 ohms, but having said that, I'm probably going to change my tune when I finish my phono/pre V2.0 (which allows values 10 to 1500).

@mulveling 

Forgot to reference you. My phono should be finished in a few weeks (said that months ago!), should be able to give you a tighter range at that point.

After waiting for 4 months I'm now a very happy owner of a Blue Lace Diamond Cantilever cartridge. Although just 40ish hours old & not near fully broken in, the Blue Lace is way better (& unfortunately more expensive) than any cartridge I owned previously, it simply blown the Ortofon A95 that it replaced away cleanly. The soundstage is huge and rock solid, speed and dynamic range both staggering. I was surprised how different it sounds compared to the wood-bodied Koetsu I had before, the Blue Lace is simply a very modern high end pick up, no excuse needed to be made for this little gem. But it was a bitch to mount given its short (& almost transparent) cantilever at the middle of the underbelly.  The local dealer informed me that basically all stone-bodied Koetsu have same construction, except for different body material obviously, but they do sound slightly different for some reason, Blue Lace being most lean and neutral, followed by Coralstone. For those who prefer a slight warmer presentation should go for Tiger Eye.

@nicknick 
Awesome! I went from an Ortofon Windfeld MC to an Onyx Platinum when I had my "oh, that's where the music's been hiding" moment. You went all out to a Blue Lace w/ diamond cantilever! Now I've got a Coralstone, but I'd love to get a diamond cantilever some day. Heard a lot of amazing feedback on that.