Getting a Koetsu Onyx cartridge rebuilt - help

Melvin Ang has arranged the rebuild of several of my late Father's Koetsu Stones. He is personal friends with the family and hand delivers them to the factory. His prices are much lower than Axiss Audio who is the official Koetsu USA rebuild broker.

Also, a less known fact is that you may have your cartridges upgraded to platinum status or spring for the diamond cantilever.

Having 3rd parties retip your Koetsu has a high negative impact on resale value. Just check the AG listings that are selling 3rd party rebuilds of Koetsu's.

Finally, Koetsu will not touch a Koetsu cartridge that has been worked on by 3rd parties no matter how reputable. I found out the hard way.

Birdogthecat: I am sure you are right about Koetsu disavowing work by another supplier. You can also claim a retipped Koetsu by someone else, is no longer a Koetsu. Nevertheless, other providers like Expert Stylus, provide an excellent service and you get a cartridge, nearly as good as new, for a small fraction of the Koetsu price.
I know with Koetsu, you actually get a new cartridge, only the body is used. It is still jolly expensive.
The only thing that would have tempted me, was a rebuild as a Platinum Onyx, but the price was way out of my league, for what is effectively, a rapidly depreciating asset.

Well, more than the body is reused in the Koetsu rebuild. The magnets are retained. I am not sure about the coil wires. Perhaps somebody out there knows the answer to that. I could email Melvin and ask him, I suppose.

I have never used Expert Stylus, probably because their lack of a website.

However, I have used SoundSmith on several of their top $350.00 rebuilds: Shelter 90x, Adcom SXC-VDH, and others. The characteristic sound of all those cartridges, after the rebuilds, changed. For the better? For the worse? I do not know. Just different. Perhaps better.

Based partly on those observations plus one personal experience, I would never have a Koetsu rebuilt by a 3rd party.

I bought a Koetsu RSP from an AG listing that I was well aware needed extensive rebuilding (the cantilever was severed in a TT dusting accident). I sent it to VDH through David Lewis Audio in PA (it is virtually impossible to contact VDH directly – at least for me it is).

VDH does excellent work. What I got back was a superb version of a high-end VDH cartridge in a Koetsu shell. Do not misunderstand: I love VDH cartridges and at this moment I am negotiating for a Colibri XGP (X coil + Gold wires + Plastic body = XGP).

Back to the RSP VDH rebuild: I contacted Melvin to see if he could persuade Koetsu Japan to restore the RSP to its former glory. The answer eventually came back as "No."

Finally, remember – if you plan to resell your Koetsu as you move up the ladder, a 3rd party rebuild has a severe negative effect upon resale value. Just check current AG listings for verification of this fact – it is an observable fact.

I was informed by Koetsu UK that everything but the body was discarded. That does'nt mean they are correct of course.

I think you are dealing with 2 groups of people here. Those who make the initial investment to buy a new unit and those, like me, who buy second hand. If you buy new, I can see that to preserve value, it is worth considering a Koetsu rebuild. Anything else seriously will damage resale value. For cheapskates like me, who bought both my RSP and current Onyx, second hand, the economics is quite different. I used my RSP for 3 years, heavily, had it retipped and sold it for what I paid for it. The Onyx cost me $800, it makes less sense then to spend several thousand dollars on a Koetsu rebuild.

It really would be interesting to have a kosher Koetsu and rebuilt model side by side, to hear the differences. I am sure they would be different. By the time you get your cartridge back after a 6 to 8 week rebuild, you can'nt really remember the origonal sound, to compare

It could be possible, that such a Koetsu - which is coming back from a independent re-tipper - will show better specs than those from Japan :-)