Getting a Koetsu Onyx cartridge rebuilt - help

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 :-)

David12,

I cannot argue with your reasoning as I did the exact same thing. After buying a broken RSP from an AG listing, I sent it off to VDH for rebuild/retip. As you state, it was a bargain and I figured, "What the hell." It is not a very pretty cartridge in the first place. I know that is not supposed to matter, but it matters to me.

I like what I got back from VDH, it just was not a Koetsu. Maybe it was better - who knows? My Koetsu Sky Blue and Vermillion Urushi sound differently, but I do know if one is better than the other. The Vermillion is supposed to be better, but I do not know if that is true. The turquoise Blue color is really cool.

What I need now is to find somebody who really knows their way around the Van Den Hul line. Someone who has no financial interest in a sale nor an axe to grind. I need some advice.

In closing, I am not going to write any more on the Koetsu rebuild topic as I have no more to add. It was fun reading all the back and forth.

Hai bird dog .... i have a koetsu and a vd hul the condor only i damaged my condor just before i bought the koetsu, and changed appartments in the mean time so comparison is difficult

What i can say is that i think the vd hul delivers a little bit more detail(light tracker) and the urushi is wonderful with voices , i will have my condor checked here in holland by vd hull maybe its only a loose wire as the damaged occured using a to stiff needle brush, after that i make my definite claim ,both are very strong advocates of analogue , the colibri is also what i will buy in the future at one time .

greetings from holland

Andromedaaudio,

Since you live in the Netherlands, do you know much about VDG cartridges? I am looking at a clear body Colibri XGP listed on AudioGon. I have never seen a clear plastic body Colibri - just black plastic or metal. I have seen the myrtle wood bodies as well. But, I have never seen clear plastic.