What do you have to lose? Of course it is worth fixing. A wonderful old cartridge like that!
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.
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- 53 posts total
invictus005"@bpoletti Get lost." Everyone please leave invictus alone it is obvious that his diaper has a full load in it and needs changing which is why he is so agitated and uncomfortable now. |
There are really two questions to answer here. 1. Is the missing stylus the only problem with this cartridge? 2. If not what else is wrong with it? So if the missing stylus is the only issue there are three places I know of you could send it to have a new stylus installed. If removal of the stylus caused suspension damage, or the passage of time has caused suspension deterioration then if you want it to sound like a Koetsu Rosewood you need to send it to Koetsu for a rebuild. I would assume that Koetsu will rebuild it appropriately not giving you anything less than what they believe is correct for a Koetsu Rosewood. Unless you just want to pay for a rebuild from Koetsu, I would send it to SoundSmith, Phono Cartridge Retipping or Expert Stylus for evaluation. If the evaluation indicated damage to the suspension I would send it to Koetsu. If you don’t want to pay that much sell it as a broken item and someone will buy it. If there is no suspension damage I would have the stylus replaced leaving the original cantilever in place. |
- 53 posts total