Koetsu cartridges - myth or reality?

Wow, a lot of postings here that agree with my own personal taste/experience. I like the Koetsu stone series because they are reasonably "fast" (dynamic and clear and not overly warm). But, the other Koetsu cartridges sound very good too. As Lewm points out, the Urushi is a particularly good overall performer.

Outside of the Koetsu line, I think the Transfiguration Phoenix should be considered as a candidate for your upgrade. This is a lively sounding cartridge with a slightly prominent midrange that gives it clarity without being excessively bright. I like the Lyra line too, but, these are on the more detailed and analytical side (more open top end, but can be bright or slightly strident). I own, and like, the Lyra Titan.

I have owned about four Koetsu designs,ranging from "Black","ONYX","ONYX PLATINUM",and "URUSHI"....All were superb and musical designs.

I view the line,compared to other mfgrs like a musician would compare different "tone woods" on a specific acoustic guitar.

Some woods,like Maple,will give a dynamic hard/clean sound that best serves hard driving music,and some prefer a warm sounding "tone wood" like Rosewood or Mahogany,which gives full justice to some music types.

ALL are viable choices!!!....Btw,a friend has BOTH the Lyra Titan-i and the Koetsu Coral Stone.He loves both,but prefers the Coral Stone on vocal music,where he feels it has no peers.

Best of luck.

I recently purchased a Koetsu Black. It is Very nice, a bargain imo. A good place to start if you are curious. It replaced a denon 103R with ease.

I own the Koetsu Coral for two years. Noted its high frequencies extension compared to Urushi, another cartridge from Koetsu which I like and have been using it with Graham 2.2 tonearm. For my case, I found it to be critical for tonearm's effective mass matching with Coral and the fine tuning and adjustment of the settings prove extremely important to derive the best performance out of Coral, espeically to capture its high frequency intensity right. I use it with Triplanar and the ASR basis phonostage setting at 65ohms. It is definitely a fine cartridge with all the fine attributes that Urushi has, and maybe due to its stone body, the micro details is more focus at the upper frequency region as compared to Urushi. As for a wood body, Urushi when paired with 47lab Phonocube gives a very realistic and fine presentation in my system. Overall, lesser micro details as compared to Coral, but prove itself to be organic in the midrange with just sufficient frequency extension in both ends when heard in my system. Really a different taste with these two cartridges though they are from the same company. Top perfomers.

All Koetsus I ever listened to are great when the owner has a super analytical reproduction system and he looks for additional warmth. Here they are great with their dominant, blown midrange and their non existant high frequency area, linked with a weak bass. I like their design and the good pricing, when available 2. hand. They work well in heavy Arms.