Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum

[Drrsutliff]

Midnight..., after visiting a local Jazz Club and taking in a couple of live sets by a member of our audio club's own quartet, I opened AudioGon to find a Koetsu Rosewood Signature Premium listed just 10 minutes prior. I reviewed the sellers feedback and noted he had sold a very nice high end turntable and tonearm in the past 30 days and received positive reviews from those buyers as to condition and care in addition to additional history of positive transactions. After some internal deliberation I decided to buy it and offered the very reasonable asking price. It arrived very well packed a few days later. Prior to its arrival I have been in the Ortofon camp for many years (Cadenza Bronze > Cardenza Black > Windfeld Ti just this year). This was a real leap of faith. I have a Origin Live Resolution mk3 with the OL Illustrious mk3c tonearm. My preamp is the VAC Renaissance 5 with the 68db MC amplification option.
The day it arrived the RSP was mounted and aligned with a SMARTractor and Fozgometer. Originally I set SRA with the tonearm level. I was surprised at the sensitivity of the Koetsu to minuscule SRA changes, but when it is right the music is breathtaking (tail slightly up in my case). In fact I was initially a little disappointed until I found that crucial spot which fell in a less than 1/2 mm change. The Ortofons I own (Cadenza Bronze, Black, and the Windfeld) all with aggressive stylus contours that reward you well with proper SRA. I love the Windfeld and it will be in rotation, but the Koetsu is staying mounted for a while... I am a little bewitched as has been forewarned by some and now I see why.
Rick

 

[mulveling]

Midnight..., after visiting a local Jazz Club and taking in a couple of live sets by a member of our audio club's own quartet, I opened AudioGon to find a Koetsu Rosewood Signature Premium listed just 10 minutes prior. I reviewed the sellers feedback and noted he had sold a very nice high end turntable and tonearm in the past 30 days and received positive reviews from those buyers as to condition and care in addition to additional history of positive transactions. After some internal deliberation I decided to buy it and offered the very reasonable asking price. It arrived very well packed a few days later. Prior to its arrival I have been in the Ortofon camp for many years (Cadenza Bronze > Cardenza Black > Windfeld Ti just this year). This was a real leap of faith. I have a Origin Live Resolution mk3 with the OL Illustrious mk3c tonearm. My preamp is the VAC Renaissance 5 with the 68db MC amplification option.
The day it arrived the RSP was mounted and aligned with a SMARTractor and Fozgometer. Originally I set SRA with the tonearm level. I was surprised at the sensitivity of the Koetsu to minuscule SRA changes, but when it is right the music is breathtaking (tail slightly up in my case). In fact I was initially a little disappointed until I found that crucial spot which fell in a less than 1/2 mm change. The Ortofons I own (Cadenza Bronze, Black, and the Windfeld) all with aggressive stylus contours that reward you well with proper SRA. I love the Windfeld and it will be in rotation, but the Koetsu is staying mounted for a while... I am a little bewitched as has been forewarned by some and now I see why.
Rick

Several years ago I had just upgraded in quick succession from Kontrapunkt "c" to Jubilee to Windfeld MC, and then I heard my first Koetsu - an old Onyx Signature. I was blown away. Since then, Ortofon has taken a back seat to Koetsu here (though I bet the Windfeld Ti is a very nice improvement over the old version). I simply love Koetsu. I prefer the stone bodies to RSP, but that may just be specific to the vintage of my particular RSP (early 2000's). I find the recent Koetsu builds & rebuilds to be excellent.

VAC preamps like yours have a fabulous sounding MM tube phono stages that match brilliantly with Koetsu platinums. You can go through a lot of stand-alone phono stages before you find anything that even closely approaches the VAC's performance (great line stage, too). BUT personally I find the VAC's built-in MC SUT (Lundhals) to be a slightly sub-optimal match for Koetsu. Pick up a Bob's Devices Sky 30 (or 40), feed it into your VAC's MM input with a very short, shielded, and low-capacitance cable, and prepare to be exhilarated. The EAR SUT's are also superb matches for Koetsu; even slightly better than the Sky.

 

[Drrsutliff]

I will look into that idea. Thank you.