Koetsu Restoration

For what it's worth, I ended up buying a new Koetsu Black instead of having my 20 year old one rebuilt. I liked the old one reasonably well, but I have to admit, there was no real comparison. I think that those that postulated that the innards of the old one would have dried out (or whatever) and become less responsive were correct. (This wasn't a stylus issue...it just didn't have that many hours on it--1000, maybe 1500.) The new one seems wonderful, for my taste.

Markc2, the Koetsu is very low output. I didn't have a pre-pre in my pre-amp, so got a EAR 834P, which seems to be a really fine match for the Koetsu. Very recently, I got a Rhea, which I frankly don't like as much as the EAR so far, but it's not yet broken in yet, and everyone tells me to just give it time. I know that Koetsu used to make a transformer/step-up (because I still have mine). Don't know how good they are, but one guy told me to hang onto it...I guess they're kind of rare.

Mark, You wrote, "My pre-amp is a Mcintosh C220 and it has about 64 db of gain, would this be enough for the Black? and if so what would kind of step up would be a good idea?"

There is an internal contradiction in your question. If the gain of the C220 is sufficient, then you won't need any SUT at all. That's the ideal situation. If you're C220 really has 64db of phono gain, I would venture to guess that it WILL be sufficient for the Koetsu Black. I know nothing about the C220, but ideally you may want also to be able to reduce the phono load resistance from the standard 47K ohms to something like 100R to 200R for optimal performance, but it's a matter of personal judgement; the Koetsu will certainly "work" into a 47K load but may sound a tad bright.

My oops, this is me on very little sleep. I didn't know if 64db of gain was enough. So I could get the cartridge and it would work, as you say but might be tad bright.

Would the Grado Ph-1 mess up the sound of the Koetsu, or just let it be? Or are there any others out there along with the EAR?

Thanks for the help.

I've heard the EAR on a Wilson Benesch turntable, and it was very quiet, I could put my ear's to the speakers and I don't think I heard anything but just a slightest of whisper from the speaker, and that was my ear about 3 inches away. That with the volume turned up to normal listening levels.

Heed Quasar at $1k is a sonic bargain and versatile gain and loading-wise.

dealer disclosure.