After reading many good posts here and on the internet about Etsuro Urushi Bordeaux, finally I placed an order and it arrived today. This is a beautifully built cartridge, elegant looking, and box low profile, even the Sapphire cantilever looks elegant.
It is not too difficult to mount it onto my Kuzma 4P 11inch arm. I like this tone arm a lot, for its versatility, wide range of cart weight and easy to use and adjust design.
I put it on a Transrotor Tourbillon TT and hook it up to a SUT+MM phono stage from Kondo, SFz SUT+M7 phono. I use the 3 ohm setting on the SUT, Odin 2 tone-arm cable.
I couldn’t help the excitement once the cart started to sing from the 1st min. I really adore the sound a lot. In the recent 6 months, I got 2 Lyra Lambda (Atlas and Enta SL) and an Anna D. None of those gave me a first minute « wow » as such. Though I like those carts very much too. They all have a soul, a character that I like but they didn’t wow me.
The sound of Bordeaux is warm, but very dynamic, a velvet sound just like its coating, color of a good bordeaux wine, true art of Urushi. Sound stage is excellent, wide and deep. Channel separation is also great. It is quite and dark background. I have to admit that the mid-range is a little bit colorized, but I really like the sound. I learnt through various posts that after hours, up to 40 hours, sound will improve. I’m eager to see the potential.
Now there’s a sense of conservativeness in the bass, as a few others commented. I believe it will clear up after hours.
I played a 3 blind mice record, which gave me a thrill as soon as the stylus hits the record. It was explosive, very dynamic and rhythmic. Same performance when I switched to John Williams/Sophie Mutter album of John’s movie sound tracks. And finally the Bach piano solo from Olafsson. I’m surprised that even within the first hour, the bass and density of the sound is already impressive. The sound is lush, detailed, while not excessive.
Everything was well played and I have no complaints at all.
I start to dream about the Gold version, while expecting this Bordeaux shines more after some hours’ play.


It is not too difficult to mount it onto my Kuzma 4P 11inch arm. I like this tone arm a lot, for its versatility, wide range of cart weight and easy to use and adjust design.
I put it on a Transrotor Tourbillon TT and hook it up to a SUT+MM phono stage from Kondo, SFz SUT+M7 phono. I use the 3 ohm setting on the SUT, Odin 2 tone-arm cable.
I couldn’t help the excitement once the cart started to sing from the 1st min. I really adore the sound a lot. In the recent 6 months, I got 2 Lyra Lambda (Atlas and Enta SL) and an Anna D. None of those gave me a first minute « wow » as such. Though I like those carts very much too. They all have a soul, a character that I like but they didn’t wow me.
The sound of Bordeaux is warm, but very dynamic, a velvet sound just like its coating, color of a good bordeaux wine, true art of Urushi. Sound stage is excellent, wide and deep. Channel separation is also great. It is quite and dark background. I have to admit that the mid-range is a little bit colorized, but I really like the sound. I learnt through various posts that after hours, up to 40 hours, sound will improve. I’m eager to see the potential.
Now there’s a sense of conservativeness in the bass, as a few others commented. I believe it will clear up after hours.
I played a 3 blind mice record, which gave me a thrill as soon as the stylus hits the record. It was explosive, very dynamic and rhythmic. Same performance when I switched to John Williams/Sophie Mutter album of John’s movie sound tracks. And finally the Bach piano solo from Olafsson. I’m surprised that even within the first hour, the bass and density of the sound is already impressive. The sound is lush, detailed, while not excessive.
Everything was well played and I have no complaints at all.
I start to dream about the Gold version, while expecting this Bordeaux shines more after some hours’ play.


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