Can I get close to Koetsu Blue Lace with a less expensive Koetsu?

[BruceBW]

I have a Koetsu Blue Lace Platinum and love it. I want a cartridge for another set up and hoping to get close to the Blue Lace without spending quite as much $$$.

I want to stick with Koetsu so I would appreciate just comments about less expensive Koetsu and how they compare to the Blue Lace, The Rosewood Signature Platinum looks interesting but is it so much different?

Can I get close to the Blue Lace for less or am I just dreaming?

thanks

 

[JRW1971]

I also have a Blue Lace, and I also wonder the same thing. But I haven’t tried any other Ks. I suspect what most would say is that (1) you should notice appreciable differences as you go from wood body, to urushi coated bodies, to stone bodies, and (2) within each of those categories, the differences are more nuanced. I further suspect many will say that as you go up the line, the lushness factor goes down, the detail and leading edge factors go up, but the Koetsu special sauce is always there. I’ve heard the Urushi Sky Blue a number of times at a dealer I buy from, on a system sorta similar to mine, and I could certainly enjoy that cart for awhile. These are daunting yet consequential decisions ….

 

[BruceBW]

I did find this which is encouraging

Absolute Sound Rosewood Platinum

The Rosewood Signature Platinum reviewed here ($8495) offers a stiffer body composed of lacquered, aged rosewood, plus the rare platinum magnets and silver-plated 6N-copper coils normally reserved for Koetsu’s stone-body cartridges. Again, quoting the website: “It’s the perfect choice for those who lust after a stone model but require a cartridge with less mass or simply prefer the look of rosewood.”

 

[Lxgreen]

I had the Urushi Wajima prior to my Blue Lace. The Wajima was a big step up from my Black, especially in the bass frequencies. I really liked the Wajima. Unfortunately the Blue lace is much better for me, especially when listening to orchestral pieces where the definition and separation of instruments was clearly superior with the Blue lace. If you never heard the blue lace you would be very happy with the Wajima.

 

[JackD201]

I've always considered my Blue Lace and Tiger Eye to be the best at handling delicate music outside of the stone bodied diamond cantilever models in my collection (Jasper, Singer's Stone, Tiger Eye Diamond). I think it would be difficult to match the Blue Lace in that regard when even the Jade or Coral can't. However! The other models all have their own great traits and I can see where I would like to use an Urushi just as I do my other carts. It helps a lot to have an arm with an exchangeable head shell or arm wand as I went down from 4 arms to just 2 at present.

My advice would be to just care for the Blue Lace well and instead of chasing it go for one that costs less but will satisfy in other ways. An Urushi for example is more flattering on vocals and solo cellos so on and so forth. I guess what I'm saying is perhaps it's just a matter of perspective and appreciating the gains rather than the trade offs would be a better pursuit. There are a lot of records out there that could use some flattery after all

 

[JackD201]

Oh. I'm not a Koetsu dealer. Figure I should throw that in there. As Cart families go, they just outnumber my other "fams" by quite a bit. The others just seem to have a linear progression from bottom to top of their lines rather than having different characters at different price points. I guess that is simply because Koetsu voices with the specific hardness of the bodies to go with 3 basic mechanical platforms as opposed to other manufacturers that have more varied motor designs in their lineups. The second placer for me fam wise are the cousins of Matsudaira provenance (Airtight, MYSL and TechDAS) they kind of have the same thing going as Koetsu. Similar if not same motors as other Matsudaira carts, different cantilever, tips and bodies for the most part.