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EMT and/or Koetsu with Shindo pre/phono and Kuzma Ref 313 arm....

I have been using an EMT TSD-75 as my main cartridge for a few years. I'd like to purchase a new cartridge in the $5-$6 range. I'm considering Koetsu or EMT. The EMT is the front runner, due to the fact I know they play well w/ my tonearm, step up, and phono stage. The issue is I'm not sure which model to get. 

my setup: Kuzma Ref. 2, REF 313 VTA, Shindo VR, Dyquem Parallel SET 300B, Altec Valencia's w/ updated crossovers. Music runs from classic jazz, to Nick Drake, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Joni, Eva Cassidy, Elliott Smith, CSN/Y, solo Neil, Zeppelin, Jackson Browne. Cheers -Don
fjn04
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
The choice can be a bit wider with top of the line Phasemation and Miyajima cartridges. 
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,956 posts
 
great system ;-) great choices in that $ range.
jperry
2,453 posts
 
I have an EMT JSD S75. I also just heard a Koetsu Coralstone in my system, and a Koetsu Black in a system I have heard many times.

The Koetsu cartridges are great.

I just installed a MY Sonic Labs cartridge and it is worth hearing. Mr. Yoshio Matsudaira (MY) designs high-performance cartridges, and has designed for Koetsu (Onyx), Air Tight, Miyabi, etc.

You should consider a cartridge from MSL. It will not disappoint.

My system is posted if you want to look

Regards,

Jim Perry
dover
2,250 posts
 
My recommendation would be to upgrade the arm first - Kuzma 4Point11 will improve the performance of your existing TT/cartridge fundamentally across the board. Do the cartridge later.

Cartridge options - Kuza CAR50 ( massively better than CAR40 and underrrated in my view ), Phasemation - very even handed balance across the spectrum, Mysonic - more dynamic, a little coloured through the midrange in my experience The best choice is going to be determined by any speaker colourations that exist, and therefore whatb are you trying to achieve in the final presentation.

In my view the EMT's are quite course and not particularly transparent compared to these others.
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