Koetsu Restoration

IMO, once a cartridge has been rebuild/retipped by someone other than the original maker, it will be considered a different cartridge. The fact that if it sounds better or worse.....is up to the owner to decide. Some can sound better, some just different and I know some who dislike them after the fact.

I have a few cartridges I will be sending to Soundsmith as they are not made anymore and the company defunct. Only third party people can fix them. So will try them. I believe them to be highly reputable.

If you like your Koetsu to sound like a Koetsu, then you have to send it back to them.

Congrats to Dserran. Thanks for sharing your experience and continue to enjoy your new toy.

Genesis said it all.

Hi Dserren
May I know what VTF are you using with the Black now and what was the original recommended VTF?

What is the TT setup of your main rig if I might enquire?

Thanks

Soundsmith does a retip on Koetsus, they do not (as far as I know) rebuild the Koetsu. The only folks that do that are Koetsu themselves. I have had a Soundsmith retip twice on my Rosewood, and sonically it was at least as good as the original.

Sadly the Soundsmith tip proved very fragile in my environment and I lost both tips after a couple of hundred hours play time. Peter quite graciously retipped my cart at no charge, no questions asked the second time round, but I decided to have a factory rebuild (and upgrade to Signature level) this last time.

To your pint, it is definitely worth while to have a vintage cart retipped/rebuilt as they normally have a lot of life left in the motors after the tip has expired.

Regards
Paul

The rebuilt Koetsu Black does have slightly more air and detail, but not to the point of dislike. I don't like too much detail, so I would have noticed any exagerated analytical performance. It does preserve some of the basic qualities I liked of the Koetsu Black. Sorry I can't describe better what my ears hear, I just enjoy what I hear.

My main system is a Acoustic Signature Mambo with a Graham 1.5 arm that has been upgraded to 2.2 status and ceramic wand with integrated nightingale cartridge. To my ears a great set-up and I am also very pleased with it. The system where I am using the Koetsu Black is an Opera Consonance LP2.0 with SME M9 tonearm and the rebuilt Koetsu Black. Phono preamp for the first is Unison Research Simply Phono and for the second Linn Linto. The first is an all tube system whereas the second is an all Linn(SS) system. I have not A-B the Koetsu in my first system so it's difficult to compare one with the other. There are huge differences in the systems and it would be unfair to say that one cartridge is better than the other. I believe that for the price of the rebuilt, and with the system I am using, it's a great cartridge.

Tracking force is a bit less with the rebuilt cartridge than original.