Your opinions about KOETSU URUSHI BLUE or VERMILLION

@millercarbon, back then is was "harsh or lush"? You're joking, right?

Dead serious. But its all a question of degree. Its all relative. That's not the point I was trying to make anyway. It was if you read it again "and this for what its worth is what he told me." So its paraphrasing not quoting but useful and something I happen to agree with- and not all that different than stuff Fremer has said- and so I put it in there.

They are very stiff cartridges and require a tonearm with a high effective mass on the order of 18 to 20 grams.

Please don't tell my Conqueror about this. It has no idea its not supposed to work so well. It might get upset. Or start slacking off, now that it has an excuse.

Many thanx for your answers.
 My turntable is a VPI ARIES 3 with JMW 10.5 tonearm, around 12gr it supposed to be.

If truly 12g it’s rather light so you would need use a heavier headshell or add weight as has already been stated.

But I have run plenty of arm and cart combos that theory and vociferous members insist would not work.
But they do sometimes so go figure.

However.....
Maybe consider something that is a better match to the tonearm though...

As I recall, all the color-coded variants of the Urushi vary from one another mostly by the lacquer finish.  However, there is one, and it might be the Blue or the Red (Vermilion), that uses a different coil wire (e.g., silver coated copper vs copper) and therefore would stand a chance of sounding different from the rest of the Urushi models.  This info is available on the Koetsu website, such as it is or used to be.  Happy owner of a Wajima variant here.