"HELP" tired Koetsu

Twl, that is the very thing I liked about the EMT is that it had a very coherent sound from top to bottom and didn't sound like Hi Fi. You know anything about the XYZ's? I am wondering about the new Sumiko Blackbird too? I still may ditch the whole TT mess after 30 years. This is good stuff though! I need to learn more about the current transformers.

Sorry to stear this thread in a different direction.

I know that the high-end ZYX R-100 Fuji is one killer cartridge. It's as good as a Shelter 901, but a little different in the way it does things. It is slightly better than the 901 on small scale music, and the 901 is a little better on large scale stuff. Nothing that I know of can beat the 901 for accurate bass response, and natural tonality. Not too sure how the lower end ZYX stuff is. I heard that their $1k model was the OEM for the Monster Alpha cartridge. Not sure about that.

I have not heard the Sumiko Blackbird, but I'm not holding my breath about it. It is supposed to be an upgrading of the Blue Point Special, and is even on a similar platform. The BPS was a barking dog, and needed replacing in a major way. If Sumiko was smart, they'd resurrect the old Supex MC line, and that would sell like hotcakes, just like it used to, back in the day.

Hi Gang. The denon 103d is a decent sounding cartridge and is what I used when my koetsu went back for rebuild.I also still have a FR-1 mk2 with very few hours on it and I use it for a spare.However;neither are in the same league as the rosewood.I think "what" Twl was alluding to; regarding the Japaneese sound and the Euro sound makes more than a little sense to me and is really a rather astute observation worthy of further dialogue.Now I personally have not heard a great many of the Euro coils in my set up- however I have heard more than a few and always preferred the japaneese coils.A few years ago I sent my 103d to Van den hul for a retip and was rather disappointed with its sound... which I think was rather sterile in comparison to its original voice,I will admit it was very clear and probably tracked better than the original but it just wouldn't let me forget I was listening to it.Even though the original 103d had a rather overblown bottom octave, it always sounded musical in my rig.

I will tell you that a really musical cartridge in the very reasonable price range, is the Denon DL103R. I used one of those for several months before getting my Shelter 501, and it is a jewel of a cartridge, for the money. Very similar in character to the Shelter, and very detailed and dynamic, with the "wholeness" in the presentation. I would highly recommend this cartridge to anyone wanting really nice musical sound for very low money. It could stomp on a number of $1k cartridges, with no trouble at all. And it only costs $230.

Twl... The supex line?? If you mean the 900 series you are really old man.[just kidding]