I have always loved the 64S but never could get on with the 64fx,despite having owned two of them.
However the 64S does have a resonant quality. Damping the underside of the lift platform helped somewhat but the resonance remained. All attempts at damping the armtube failed,destroying the essential qualities of the arm. That is until I I tried sliding the cheap pieces of rubber found on throwaway ballpointpen grips over the armtube. In my set-up this has worked wonders,killing the harshness and squashed upper mid dynamics but keeping the huge expansive sound that is such a magical characteristic of the 64S.
Just my findings in my system and my tastes.It is cheap and reversible.
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Beautiful cartridgeListening to vdh, Benz and Koetsu carts in different bodies, I am mostly impressed about the differences. Specially combining the carts with different headshells.
I learned from the Stradivarius experience , that even paint can make a big difference . So I started to read about the Japanese Urushi tree and the way of creating the art of Urushi painting. Looking into the Koetsu portfolio , reading to some of their explanations, it seems, that the resonance frequency of the Urushi paint match to the Koetsu wooden rosewood bodies. So Koetsu created a series wonderful painted Urushi cartridges.
Investigating the influence of body typed really is fun, but I had to order some more of the Dereneville MiniMat headshell support, had to get a 3 to 4g Headshell weight to overcome the less weight of the urushi versus the Onyx.
As I have the 2x Onyx in the Jelco rosewood/magnesium and in the Yamamoto Titanium heads hell I tried both headshells with the Urushi. But with both headshell the Urushi sound was a kind if boring, dark and dull. So I decided to have the urushi running on the Clearaudio burn in record with demag function as well.
This morning the Urushi was waking up, agility is back, dynamics are back. After a quick comparison I preferred the Titanium headshell with the 800' ortofon leads as the favorite combination.
During the last flee market I was able to buy some old Clannad records, incl the "Macalla" and the "Sirius" record, with records were used to understand the body types better.
The Koetsu Urushi Sky Blue plays Clannad with a lot of vibes, dynamics and emotional involvement. The drummer has a good punch and I was really enjoying the performance. But after a while I started to miss some resolution, some 3D staging and a sharper contour of the instruments in the room.
So I changed to the stone body Koetsu (in Titanium headshell). Immediately a better structure and a deeper and wider soundstage appear. The singer is more close, the room is opening. Basslines get clear focus and structure.
But....But, there is something with the wooden Urushi, which makes me understand, that there are people out there, preferring the Urushi . The understanding of the emotional flow of the music is so easy with the Urushi. The stone body is more neutral in this character and (within the Koetsu world) a little little bit less involving.
Having said that, for me is now way back to an Urushi, if you have heard the precise staging and structure a stony body can give.
Looking forward to "meet" more Koetsu characters
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