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RE: Koetsu Black Goldline retip - which stylus profile?

Posted by flood2 (A) on April 27, 2015 at 14:49:42

In Reply to: RE: Koetsu Black Goldline retip - which stylus profile? posted by Solidcore on April 27, 2015 at 13:02:19:

A very good question! My experience with MicroLine styli is limited to the original tips on my AT cartridges and I have been searching for retippers with access to this profile myself - I wonder who JICO source their "SAS" styli from?
I contacted Garrott Bros in Melbourne to ask them what profile their "MicroScanner" and "MicroTracer" were similar to. These are proprietary designs apparently and they conveniently avoided answering specifically, despite a few attempts. They offer the FGS stylus as their top offering. Price-wise, they appear more expensive than Soundsmith or Expert as they have higher surcharges for different cantilevers.

How old is your Koetsu? If you are finding the tonal balance to be skewed towards a "duller" presentation (and I presume it wasn't always like this?), it might suggest that the mechanical system is overdamped, which implies a hardening of the suspension. Is the tracking ability the same as it used to be?

What was your impression of the Paratrace? I haven't had the tips done yet so can't speak from experience. By all accounts, the VdH profile (not sure which version) is the longest lasting of all "line contact" designs and has a minor radius of very similar dimensions (2um with 85um bearing radius) as the ML. I would therefore expect very similar performance to the ML in terms of theoretical bandwidth which is why I'm going for this profile despite my (present) preference for ML over the other designs I have. However, as I mentioned before, this will be at ultrasonic frequencies and won't influence your perception of tonal balance - this is determined by the response at 8 to 12kHz and will be affected by the mechanical damping characteristics and moving mass of the system.

Regards Anthony

"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.." Keats

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