Miyajima Madake and Koetsu platinum-based

iaxel

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Oct 25, 2016
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Playing with the thought of owning one of the above.
Planning to use a Thales Simplicity II tonearm and a Pass XP-25 phono.
Looking for the best “musical” (not necessarily neutral or “as-recorded”) reproduction of classical instruments (piano in particular). I already have a DS Audio W2 on a second arm, which gives me the best dynamic and neutral sound - looking for something a bit different in sound.

Would love to hear your thought/experiences, and if any if you had a chance for a head-to-head comparison (or any kind of comparison).

Thanks!

P.S.
By Koetsu platinum-based - I mean Rosewood-platinum, Urushi-platinum and stone-bodied-platinum.
 

BruceD

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Dec 13, 2013
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I've owned 4 variants of the Koestus--most from the early 80's era--Long bodied Onyxs etc and have had the Madake up till this year ( in Kuzma 4point)

Observations allowing for the time frame and memory:) the Madake has similar traits to the Stone bodied K's--whereas I'd say the Rosewoods are less Full "bodied" in presentation

still detailed but the comparison with the K stones more pronounced. I cannot comment on the lastest K's as I have not evaluated any of them at length

But I'd go so far as to say the Madake and Koestus share sparingly similar Sonics--I'm big fan of the Jan Allaerts in the same way.

To diversify you may need to possibly go more the detail and etched path of say the upper scale Lyras.

Good Luck,

BruceD
 

iaxel

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Oct 25, 2016
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Thanks Bruce!
So your observations will place the Madake at the level of the Koetsu stone-bodies, while the Rosewoods are a tad below them both soundwise, right?
 

BruceD

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Thanks Bruce!
So your observations will place the Madake at the level of the Koetsu stone-bodies, while the Rosewoods are a tad below them both soundwise, right?

Correct -- though purely in my view(or ears!)

BD
 

bonzo75

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I agree the sound is similar but never heard a koetsu sound good without an FR tonearm. I think you have the Ikeda, and have heard madake sound better on an Ikeda. But the same guy had a SPU that sounded better than the madake with the Ikeda
 

iaxel

Well-Known Member
Oct 25, 2016
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I agree the sound is similar but never heard a koetsu sound good without an FR tonearm. I think you have the Ikeda, and have heard madake sound better on an Ikeda. But the same guy had a SPU that sounded better than the madake with the Ikeda
Thanks Kedar!
I did use to own the Ikeda, but couldn’t set it up to reach the low distortion levels I managed to reach with my other tonearms (Thales Simplicity II, TW Raven 10.5 (sold) and the SME V-12), due to the fact that I listen mostly to classical music (piano music in particular) this was very noticeable.
How does the Madake sound on non-FR/Ikeda tonearms?
 

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