Astonishing Resolution, Staggering Low-End Detail, Impeccable Balance

A hand-carved rosewood body, rare platinum magnets, and an entirely unique body shape elevate the Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum cartridge to the top of its family class. Most importantly, it is the least-expensive Koetsu cartridge to utilize the platinum materials, which are reserved for the company's flagship models. The net result is a staggering degree of resolution and low-end performance that surpasses that of even the other Rosewood Series models and most other cartridges in the world. In addition to six-nines copper (99.9999% pure), the Stereophile Class A Recommended Rosewood Signature Platinum also boasts silver cladding in which a silver sheath is meticulously drawn over the copper conductor for optimal conductivity and tracking ability. You'll get lost in a sea of natural harmonics, supremely balanced tonalities, incredible dynamics, and shockingly smooth passages. Focus, depth, imaging, and separation all take on new meanings. When it comes to reference-level analog, Platinum prevails.

"To me, the Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum felt extraordinarily natural, sophisticated, and correct. Most important, Koetsu's best rosewood-bodied cartridge made me feel good about the records I own."
—Herbert Reichert, Stereophile, Class A Recommended Component

Greatness Without the Hype

Koetsu cartridges don't require any fancy promotion or exaggerated typecasting. They stand alone for what they represent: The zenith of analog sound. These reverential musical instruments are all about musical transcendence and transformation. Indeed, while some listeners will inevitably demand how Koetsu justifies its pricing, our reply is simple: Once you listen, you'll hear and understand everything. Questions and doubts immediately melt away. All that's left behind is music distinguished with utmost ease, liquidity, vibrancy, clarity, responsiveness, and focus. The kind that leaves you wondering just how much detail, information, and texture you've missed on records you've heard hundreds of times.

A Very Select Sample Size Ensures Excellence

Unsurpassed quality and superior performance never come cheap. By its definition, "best" applies to a very select and extremely small sample size. While not everyone will be fortunate enough to experience the thrills wrought by a Koetsu cartridge mining vinyl's grooves and making beautiful music, all audiophiles relate to – and crave – the idea of the reference-setting imaging, three-dimensionality, supple harmonic richness, and tonal elegance that they effortlessly produce. The difference is that such sought-after characteristics aren't just starry-eyed ideas or goals with Koetsu. They're reality. And with a Koetsu, they're your reality.

Koetsu: Sonic Calligraphy for the 21st Century

Founded in the 1970s by Yoshiaki Sugano – a multi-skilled boxer, sword maker, painter, metallurgist, and Toyota executive that held a special love for hi-fi audio – and named after Honami Koetsu, a 17th-century Japanese artist and calligrapher, Koetsu prizes tradition, purity, and perfection. A direct descendant of the medieval Koetsu, Sugano demanded his cantilevers be built of a "special" iron custom-made by a northern Japanese university that used a secret process. After receiving pre-aged rubber suspensions and rosewood bodies from other craftsman, Sugano painstakingly hand-built each cartridge in the same manner a legendary violin maker obsesses over a wood's finite grain and age. Koetsu cartridges stood out not only for their transparent sound and exotic materials, but for their striking appearance. Today, Sugano's son, Fumihiko, carries on the proud legacy.

Specifications:

Body: Rosewood
Type: moving coil
Coil wiring: silver-plated copper
Magnet: platinum
Cantilever: boron
Output: .3mV
Frequency range: 20Hz-100kHz
Channel separation: 25dB/1kHz
Inner impedance: 5 ohms
Channel balance: .5dB/1kHz
Recommended impedance: 30 ohms
Weight: 12.4g
Compliance: 5x10-6cm/dyne at 100Hz
Recommended Tracking Force: 1.8-2.0g
Recommended Load: 80-1,000 Ohms