KISEKI PURPLE NS your reviews....

@nandric, the story of ’getting back at Sugano’ is well known and not disclaimed by van den Dungen, so probably holds some truth. Your speculation that the original Kiseki’s were built by Kondo is an interesting ’theory’, which almost sounds too good to be true. There is some visual resemblance with Kondo’s IO carts, so who knows? It would certainly add to the ’mystique’....

Do you know the specs of the original Black Heart? I have the Lapis with vdH tip on boron (alas not the original diamond cantilever). That means it’s now a Black Heart in a (very) fancy dress. The limited info available suggests the Lapis has an internal impedance of 6 ohms, much lower than the original Blue, Purple Heart and Agate models.

BTW: I have considered the option of having a Namiki diamond cantilever / micro ridge stylus installed, which would bring the Lapis close to its original form. Any thoughts?

Dear edgewear, Probably in order to add to the ''mystique'' of
the Lapis Lazuli there are no published technical specs. But
considering the fact(?) that ''black heart'' has the same generator
while there are specs for the ''black heart'' we may deduce to
''the same specs''. Your guess reg. 6ohms is correct. The stylus 
is line contact and VTF 1,-2.2 g.
The best repair service is by Dominic at Northwest Analogue in
UK but I never got any reaction from them. So I use ''Expert stylus''
UK instead. BTW there is also an silver version of the SUT with
both  low and high impedances : MCT -1 S improved. Very difficult
to find but ''one newer knows''. 

Dear Nandric, thanks for your confirmation on impedance. Compared to my other cartridges I would guess the Lapis has an output around 0.4 mV.
As my sample had been previously retipped I had to figure out VTF and settled on 1.85 grams. The vdHul tip is obviously different from the original and probably not 'polished by human hair', as van den Dungen's attempt at 'marketing humour' suggested. 

Dear edgewear, I need to first correct my VTF info. It is 1,6-2,2g
The output is 0,4 mV. I use 1,8 g for my blackheart. While Kiseki 
styli are polished by ''human hair'' those of Van den Hul are polished by Gyger in Swizerland. He designed the styli but Gyger  produced them.

More than 3000$ for a cartridge with so many problems ? It's a joke !
 A few year ago I was naive, I thought that when I will rich enough I will buy high end cartridges and get top quality items with top sound. Now I'm rich enough and when i buy a new cartridge I tighten the buttocks... Is the stylus straight ? How is the tracking ability ? Is it the good diamond ? Is the right and left channel are equal ? Is it really new ?
 At those high prices we should have zero problem and get a FULL TESTED cartridge and we could buy them with eyes closed in total confidence.

 As we say in my country, manufacturers and seller are a "basket of crabs" you don't know wich one will pinch you. Cartridge are small things, so it's not easy to see what's inside. But now I've got my own microscopes and when I look inside a high end cartridge I'm always surprised by the poor job quality of some expensive cartridges, they look like a kid DIY job. I Think that someone is making big money on those things , and I think that just out of the manufacture those cartridge are not expensive at all when we see what's inside.