[Gopher]

I unmounted my Koetsu this afternoon as it sold and threw on my backup AT 440mla to use temporarily.

My wife who vaguely knows whats going on in my system came in and asked me with a worried look whether this was what I replaced the Koetsu with.  I told her no and the relief was obvious--she says "good, because this thing sucks"

Heh, pretty funny.  Tomorrow we'l see how the Nagoaka sounds.

[ADD]

What ever happened to the Koetsu that was going to replaced.
Has anyone played the Koetsu and the Shilbe side by side and what did you think.
Igor

[TONEPUB]

After living with the new Grado Statement 1 for a few months, that would be my choice.  It's an outstanding cartridge with more HF and LF extension and no tracking limitations.  Grado has really created a masterpiece here.

[Gopher]

I honestly stopped looking for new carts a while ago.  I changed phono stages which led to more satisfaction than the cartridge juggling was.  I've been using a Zu 103 prime for about 6 months very happily.  Phonostage is a Jasmine LP2.0SE these days.  Wonderful pairing for a fraction of the money I wanted to spend.

[Photon46]

Hey Tonepub, what phono pre-amplification are you using with the Statement 1? I'd like to move into low output Grados myself. However, they are seemingly incompatible with so many phono stages in that many high gain stages don't offer 47K. loading. Over and over I see high gain circuits that only offer loading suitable for moving coils. I've certainly considered the head amp route, but resist because it's one more box on the rack, one more set of interconnects, more complication, etc. (apologies to the original poster for shifting the topic here.)