Best Koetsu for SME V


I have a SME V with a Benz Ruby 2. I want to jump into the Koetsu club. What would be the best Koetsu to match the SME V. Some say that the "stone" ones (Jade-Onyx) would be too heavy for the V although there is now a new SME specially design weight to accomodate the heaviest cartridges like the Clearaudio Goldfinger at 16g. Anyway, any thoughts much appreciated. Anything Urushi and above. Gain is not an issue. I can go as low as .1mv
smoffatt
Hi,

I use a Rosewood Signature Platinum on an SME V and a Oracle V. There's a big difference in frequency extension ,especially in the upper end detail with the low output Koetsu. I came away from a Helikon and Benz Ruby 2 and the harmonic "rightness" and upper end extension of the RSP is superior to my ears
Dear Smoffatt: I like the Platinum series but not in a SME. I wonder why with that TT/tonearm are you looking for a Koetsu?

For your kind of music and with your analog rig the Dynavector XV-1 or the Lyra Titan could be great choices.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
I tend to agree with Raul here as I have found that matching the arm with Koetsu's is the key to performance. For many years I owned a Black which I had rebuilt by the now deceased Garrott Bros and it was a great cart in the right arm and in the wrong arm (mid -low mass) it just sounded warm and friendly, but bland. I have a soft spot for Koetsus and recently I picked up a Rosewood Sig that had been retipped by VdH but the body has about 20 years vintage. I was blown away by how solid this was in the bass and extended in the highs on a high mass damped arm -in this case a Micro-Seiki Max 282. It also sounds really good on my Triplanar. I thought I would need a RS Platinum to get that extension at the top end. I should also mention that I am getting better results on my SP 10 heavy plinth direct drive than on my belt drive Micro-Seiki RX 5000. Someone here on another post mentioned that Sugano-san voiced the carts on a Lenco idler DD deck, hmm, interesting.

Bottom line is the SME / Koetsu match will not get the best out of the wood body carts unless you are prepared to play around a lot with the damping. I cannot comment on the jade / onyx bodies, but would love to hear from those with experience of those.
Steve:

AFAIR, Sugano-san was indeed using idler turntables but these were Garrards (301 & 401) rather than Lencos. I visited him a number of times, and don't recall having seen him with a Lenco.

BTW, an idler is not a DD, and again I don't recall having seen Sugano use a DD.

regards, jonathan carr
I used a Urushi on an SME V. Now I am using a Jade on an Ikeda. The Urushi sounded fabulous but you did lose the last bit of bass. What I did to maximize the performance is use the spacer between the Koetsu & Headshell to be able to get the VTa negative enough. The other thing is I added mass to the SME V using Bluetak inside the headshell (but not into the armtube) and blue tak on top of the arm at the pivot. This advise I found on AA. It worked wonders. Truly increased dynamics and extension. IME Koetsu prefer high mass. SME V is medium but w. the blue tak (it didn't look bad at all) I had a high mass arm. I would suggest the RSP as probably the best of both worlds for the money.