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Ikeda 9 Cartridge Squeaking

This is an odd issue I have never been able to figure out the last few months. I have an Ikeda 9 Kawami cartridge on a Well Tempered Reference table, with the longer WTR arm. There are a few albums by Mark Isham on Windham Hill label that this cartridge has a high pitched squeak or rubbing sound in the groove. I can hear it and it drives me nuts! Yet on other albums such as George Winston on the same label there is none of this nonsense. 

Overhang is set by an arc protractor with spindle to pivot being 233 degrees. I have not found a factory listed number for this arm, but an owner of a Wally Tractor had one done for his table and reported the 233 mm number. I used an original Feikert and measured 230 mm from the first setting that the previous owner had it at when I obtained this table.  I cannot find a factory protractor for this table, and all the info from Stanalog or Transparent seems to be missing. I am tempted to pull the cartridge off this arm and put it on my Audiomods Series Six with a heavy cartridge plate and see what happens there. But I would prefer to keep the cartridge on this table, but for the life of me I am not sure what the issue is. 

There is nothing on the net regarding this phenomenon that I have found. Anyone experience this, or hear about it? Since the cartridge is similar to a London Decca design, perhaps an owner of those cartridges may have heard something?
neonknight
neonknight OP
393 posts
 
Cartridge identification on these is always difficult. Mine is the gold colored body with the kanji character on the right hand side and Ikeda 9 printed across the bottom. I have always had wondered if this is just the standard 9 or if this is the Kawami version. The general conclusion here on Audigon is that it is the Kiwami, so I run it at 1,5 grams. 

@chakster   That is a line of thinking I have considered myself; the reason it is on the WT table is the previous owner had this pairing. The WTR arm may be better suited to the ZYX 4D or Ortofon A90 I have, and I may move one onto that table. I no longer have any high mass arms, the heaviest I have is the Audiomods Series Six with heavy cartridge plate, and that one isnt close to hitting 35 grams. I do know that Jeff Spalls makes a custom cartridge plate for people who want to run Denon DL 103 cartridges, so that should get me into higher mass territory. My only other arm is a SME V, so that one will not fit the bill either. 


edgewear
543 posts
 
@neonknight I use the gold coloured 9 Rex, which apparently is identical to your Kiwami. The spec sheet recommends 1.5 gram VTF, but it is by nature a very low compliance design. So it needs a high mass tonearm, just as chakster suggests. I tried it in several arms, but it sounds best in FR64s. The Ikeda arms will be a perfect match too, but I have no first hand experience with these.

dover
2,251 posts
 
@neonknight 
I own an Ikeda Kiwami, purchased new in the 90's.

The correct tracking force for the Kiwami as per the manual ( which I have )  is 2.0 - 2.5g

Compliance is 6 x 10*-6 cm/dyne.

I have succesfully run it in a Naim Aro with effective mass 14g, but the best arm that I use it with is the heavier mass Fidelity Research FR64S.
 ( Mr Ikeda does not recommend unipivots for these cartridges. )

The Ikeda cartridges are very sensitive to antiskate because the hoop flexes in the lateral plane, so you need to pay careful attention, I set the antiskate by ear. You need an arm that you can set precisely the correct antiskate level for the individual cartridge.

I have set up an Ikeda 9EM on a Well Tempered many years ago, but that cartridge was much more forgiving than the Kiwami. I dont think the Well Tempered arm is stable enough for the Kiwami in my view.

nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
I think that 9REX and Supremo are the latest in the cantileverless
series. My (forum) brother Don bought Supremo with integrated
headshell and posted to ''Expert stylus'' in UK. As Decca owner
he knew that Decca uses styli produced by ''Expert stylus''. So he
got new stylus for about 200 GBP. Before buying any in Japan
we wanted to be sure that someone in the West was able to retip
them. I have never seen Kiwami so can't say anything about this
one. Our assumption was that 9REX and Supremo are ''identical''
qua ''generator'' . Their VTF are 1.5 g which is the lowest among
Ikeda's cantileverless kinds. I am very happy with my REX.
lewm
13,195 posts
 
Like the others, I suggest add mass to the WTR tonearm or get a higher effective  mass replacement. I recently ( this week) experienced an epiphany with my similarly low compliance Koetsu Urushi. I’ve owned it for about 10 years, used it in a few different medium mass tonearms, was never blown away by its SQ. Last week, in a last ditch effort to make it sing, I mounted it on my FR 64S on a Victor TT101 turntable. Using an 18g Ortofon headshell. Holy cow! I never would have believed the Urushi could ever live up to its expectations. But now it does indeed.
Also, I am familiar with the WTR tonearm in a negative sense of the term.
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