Dear Mike an Jerome,
First - SORRY for a lot of typos in my text above - I wrote it during a session in my studio - and had to speed up......hope it is still understandable!!!!!!
Thank you!!!!
So - lets start:
I think it is very interesting to look at a Koetsu from it´s historical background, at the year of it´s first release (end of 70ties last century), we had the SPU, the DECCA and so on - the Koetsu was a completely new chapter in cartridge design.
Today, most of the HiFi industry has forgotten what a Koetsu needs to perform on it´s pinnacle. The reason might be, that today the ultra High End customers look at the price tags - there they will find the Lyra Atlas, Clearaudio Goldfinger, Air Tight Opus 1 oder PC1 Supreme, Zyx Universe, Dynavector XV1t and so on....and of course the Koetsu stone body cartridges.
A Lyra Atlas is an ultra modern construction, a Coral stone Koetsu is something very traditional, which we have to see in a certain context.
The demand of an Atlas couldn´t be more different, than that of the Coral Stone or more so an Urushi....
That brings me back to the FR64S and to your great picture, Mike!!!!
That is maybe the mother of all steel Armtube designs - it is one of a kind!!!! Tonearm design done right!!!!! - The same must be said about the 12" brother, the FR66S!
The FX variant of those arms could not touch the quality of the S class!
Ikeda San made them - because they are more compatible with higher compliance carts - but the FX FR designs are not even close to the FR64 and 66S designs!
Both (64s /66s) were made without any restrictions by Ikeda San, who designed later under his own name Ikeda, the Ikeda tonearms, which are good, but not in the same league, as the FR 64s and 66s! And no SME could ever touch this quality, no vintage 3012/3009 (fist series with steel armtube, the best of them) nor the modern reincarnation of these classics!
The only thing you should change with your original FR64S, ist the headshell - use a vintage original (there are a lot of fakes on ebay!!!!) Orsonic or the Arche`system made in Germany by Acoustical Systems (modern solution - one of the best!).
And have a closer look at the internal wiering.....!!!!
One of the best cables you can put on the Tiffany connector to get in touch with your SUT is at the moment the Lyra Phonopipe - as it is also with the connection from SUT to the RIAA input - because the Lyra has a very, very low capacitance - and is perfectly shielded - sounds very, very open - nearly like no cable!
Think a little bit about it....the cpacitance calculation using a SUT comes with the fourth potency!!!!!
In the modern world there is the Graham Phantom II, maybe the Triplanar VII, Durand Talea, Da Vinci Vertu (to name a few) and of course the Frank Schröder designs.
Since a couple of years, we have to be more precise with Frank´s arms, because there is much more now, that "just" the classic Schröder magnet bearing arm.
Frank has developed the CB tonearm (CB stands for captive bearing) which is a tonearm with special hybrid bearings (with a measurable friction in the bearings wich is at the moment the world record for what is possible) and than there is the new LT tonearm, a design which uses a special linear tracking mechanism in a traditional design (so no air pumps needed) which is maybe one of the best armdesigns of our time.
With the Schröder designs you have the choice of armmaterials (mostly wood) which allows you to place the arm in a certain "eff mass class" - the different kinds of wood are not chosen to vary the sound (no tone control!!!!!) - it is just a matter of mass.
An ebony or snakewood armwand allows an eff mass with a 9,5" design around 20 - 22g, a bamboo armwand for example puts the arm in the 13g eff mass direction.
To make things more flexible, Schröder is using a kind of headshell plate, in which you can mont the cart (which has also some advantages in handling - if you ever tried to mont a cart with screws an nuts under a tonearm with a fixed headshell, you know, what I mean).
This headshell - plate can be varied in materials - and therefor also in weight.
Lets say, you have a bamboo armwand - the eff mass with the standard headshell plate made from a special sort of aluminium is 13g.
If you use a pertinax headshell plate you reach 9g - with a aluminium composite plate you get 11g, with aluminium (as explained above) the mass will be 13g, and with bronze/brass the same arm reaches 18g eff mass....
That is pretty much the same technique you have with detachable SME style headshell systems on a traditional tonearm.
But Frank does it with a different technique - so no aditional contacts (just one single run of cable from the clips to the connectors is used in his design) are needed!
That makes the Schröder designs very, very flexible.
You can use ONE tonearm with an eff mass calculations of 9g, 11g, 13g and 18g!
This is just an example - it is very helpful to contact Frank directly or use the help of his distributors.
The use of special treated wood makes them very effective in absorbing mechanical energy from the cart, and the magnetic bearing (on a classic Reference arm) let you adjust the damping of the whole construction in a style no other arm allows that (patented design).
A Schröder tonearm sounds more like no tonearm - it is something very special, which - to come back to our thread here - fits the needs of Koetsu carts perfectly (but not only Koetsu of course...).
A Schröder Reference on a Platine Verdier is "end of the game"!
As it would be also with an FR64 oder 66s....although the Schröder is much more flexible!
I use myself a Schröder Reference on a Nouvelle Platine with a modified tape drive mechanism - and it is a fantastic combination.
A FR64 or 66, a Schröder Reference - that is a completely different level of performance, as with the classic SME designs (which fits a DL 103 or an SPU nicely).
As I know, Jerome, you came along the way of Shindo - those philosophy is different.
With the Shindo way, you have to accept, that all components are made for each other (which is a very good thing) - means, the speakers have to have highly efficient, and high impedance, the tube amps (Class A designs with nearly no neg. feedback) are made exactly for those speakers, the preamplifiers and internal SUT´s are made with a classic SPU in mind, or if you use a T2 A23 SUT a classic EMT, with other A23 SUT designs a DL 103 is also a very nice combination.
All these carts love to live in a classic tonearmdesign, like the Ortofon 309, SME 3009 oder 3012 or EMT - an this is pretty much the advice given by the Shindo community...
If we break the rules on one point - let´s say, we use a Koetsu instead of a SPU, we will get a different picture, a picture, Ken Shindo did not had in mind, as he voiced the whole chain - a Koetsu might be too much of a good thing in the midband with Shindo electronic behind that cart....
This very tight product range, and mostly the kind of speaker systems, which work with that kind of way, was 20 years ago MY reason to leave that path.
But I think it is a very good way to choose the amplification from ONE designer - because in and output impedances have to match and also a line pre, a phono stage and a power amp are together ONE amplifier chain.
With the Koetsu, as it will be also the case with a Lyra for example, you leave the traditional Shindo concept - and that means, that you have to do the work of integrating the things now by yourself (Shindo did it for you, if you follow his rules).
Back on track......:
You will find a lot of FR arms and also Schröder Designs on Garrard, Commonwealth and other vintage idler drive tables, as also Platine, Micro Seiki 1500 or 5000, and Bauer DPS decks!
To view the thing from a different perspective.....Sugano voiced the carts also with tube amps and a 4 way horn system.
And as Jerome discovered in a different thread here the miracle of an original Western Electric 300B - a tube, which has a pureness in the midtone, which is in my book unreached till today - no other 300B design does it in the same way the original WE can do. That is also fact for other tube designs - as the famous Telefunken ECC83 Smooth Plates, which has also a complexity in the midband, a neutrality and a high portion of the real thing - no other modern 12AX7 can touch.
And to bring in other endtube designs - no KT88 today has the quality and pure sound of a original GEC KT88 Black Plates Triple Getter, or think about the EL 34 - the Mullard XF2 Double O Getter is also such a candidate, as it is the RCA 6L6 GC Black Plate and so on....
But to listen a Koetsu through a SET amp design using WE 300B and connecting this to a horn speaker system has something which makes us asking, what the hell have we reached in the last 80 years of HiFi and High End!
Good speaker matching concepts with a Koetsu are:
Horn loaded systems
Tannoy Alnico systems - like the old Autograph
Quad ESL 57
Magnepan
LS3/5a!!!!!
High resolution modern constructions as YG Acoustics for example
Which brings me to the LS3/5a
Jerome uses LS3/5a BBC monitors - these little wonders have a high frequency rise - as the original Quad ESL 57 also have (in a lesser degree).
Both designs do not like to be matched with carts which have the typical moving coil high frequency rise often seen today.
The Koetsu does have that rise in a much lesser degree, as a Lyra or Zyx.
Also the SPU and EMT does not have that extreme high frequency rise, as we see it in some more modern designs!
So a match of a Koetsu with a LS3/5a is made in heaven - as it is with the original Quad ESL 57!!!
The same can be said for the use of no oversampling multibit ladder DAC´s in such systems.
At the end - the cart is the beginning of a chain - the speaker is the end of that chain - both are transducers and bring much more "character" and differences to the table as a pre amplifier for example (which does not mean, that all preamps sounds equal or the differences in sound quality are small.....).
So we have to do us a favour, and think a little bit.....the choose of a cartridge is the beginning of the whole chain - and a Koetsu is something very special, which can work fantastic - as Puma Cat said here - you close a chapter - or it will perform, like a tool to fall asleep, as you can read it in nearly all hifi forums.
With a Koetsu it is a little bit the same, as with an Ortofon SPU - which will also not work in a lightweight modern tonearm design, which needs a SUT to sounds it best, and also a special SUT, not the same, the customer is using for his Benz LPS.... And such an SPU likes also to have a special kind of turntable design, which is rarely seen in the modern audio world.
What I want to say is....the beginning of the whole game - means the cart, will have a lot of consequences down the whole system - and a Koetsu is one of such designs....
If it is all done right you will get:
1. A resolution, which sounds completely natural - it is not analytical, and it is not rolled off in the treble
2. The treble is natural as breathing - no artefacts, no sybiliance, silky and very real
3. The upper presence (around 7Khz) is a little bit on the defensive side of neutral
4. The complete midband is to die for - full, warm and realistic - a human voice is 3 dimensional and real - sometimes spooky!
5. The upper bass is a little bit too smooth, it is not the last word in speed and attack.
But it gives us a certain flow, which let us forget time!
6. The bass should be tight, full and dynamic - it is not the last word in speed - but it is not flabby!!!!!
And it should reach deep - very deep!
7. The reverbs and rooms are shown in a very, very natural way with a little emphasis on bigger than real - which makes the spundscape often spectacular.
The sound comes with a lot of "greatness"
8. The dynamic is good - not outstanding, but good - the Koetsu sound is more about flow, and not so much about getting afraid off the next bass event
9. The Koetsu is able to project a human voice in front of you - so real, that it is sometimes frightening.
10. The Koetsu shows you the music as a whole picture!!!!
11. You get one of the most silent rides in the groove!!!!
Together ist makes the musical experience in front of our system not so much HiFi like, it´s more about being there, it´s more about understanding music not understanding and pinpointing to the engineering techniques the record has (for that you have your Lrya Atlas or Etna).
Some last words about the Range and how it will change the sound, as you climb up the ladder....
....you will get more finesse, more resolution (the stone body carts are not far away from the most advanced constructions today), more tightness in the bass and more space around the instruments.
That said - it does not mean, that the Koetsu Black is a typical entry level cartridge - the Black can give you already the whole picture of Koetsu - if you do the things right!
The DL 103 comes to mind - which one section of the High End scene is making it´s jokes about that cheap cart - another section (Shindo community comes to mind) uses this cart in different shells, with heavy tonearms, very expensive SUT´s on high mass tables or idler wheels decks together with highest level of tubes amplifier designs.
If someone has ever listened to such an implementation of a DL 103 - he will be stunned, what is possible with this little evergreen!
It is all about things done right - and concentration on the specific task - too much time is spent in changing gear, without deep knowledge of what we already have!
Have much fun
Ekki
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