Koetsu Black

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Greetings Everyone,

I have an opportunity to purchase a Koetsu Black with ~300 hours on it for what I feel is a reasonable price. Here is the problem, one channel is open.

Has anyone ever tried taking apart and repairing a MC cartridge? I have never worked on one but am VERY adept at soldering and small repair work so I'm not afraid of the size just want to know if what I'm proposing is even possible.

I am assuming that one of the wires from the coils to the pins perhaps has broken. Would it be possible to unwind one coil from each channel and resolder the wire to the pins? My thought here is it would essentially create new lead out wires. Yes, it would drop the impedance a little bit but I don't think it will matter much as long as both coils are the same...

Do the MC cartridges just extend the coil winding out and solder it to the pins with perhaps a little "slack" for movement? Or, is there some different wire used to connect the coils to the pins?

Is working on one of these "magic" or just very small delicate work?

Again, I've never tried a cartridge repair and have never actually taken one apart. That having been said, I am not afraid to tackle the job if someone here says that they think it will work...Otherwise, I'd prefer not to waste $250....

Thanks very much!
 
Given that the chances of fixing this are small and that the suspension is likely shot, the asking price is a bit too high. You might want to contact one of the retipping agencies (like vdH) and see if they can give it a try repairing, retipping, and refurbishing the suspension- ask that the sale be contingent on that being able to be done.
 
Chances of completing this repair yourself successfully seem extremely low. I've opened a few moving coils and the idea of using normal soldering instruments is preposterous. Retipping and rebuilding the suspension is certainly a good idea (though not by VDH - it just won't be Koetsu after that) but recoiling will probably be prohibitively expensive. From what i know open coils are usually the result of oxidation so assuming that you can repair without recoiling is very optimistic.
I am sure you'll eventually get the real answer when J Carr responds to your query :)
 
Thanks everyone for the info!

Koetsu charges $650 for rebuilding the cartridge...

Combined with the $250 purchase price I think it's just too high at this point...

I was considering this because I've never tried a MC cartridge and thought this would be a very good one... My current system uses a low output Grado Reference and I thought it would be interesting to compare the two... The Grado is very very good and I guess I'll just live with it. :nod:

Unfortunately, $900 is a bit too much to experiment with at this time...

Thanks again for the replies!

Best Regards,
 
Overly Lush?

.......this coming from Mr.Tube. :D :D :D
 

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diyAudio Senior Member
Joined 2002
LUSH?

Hi,

.......this coming from Mr.Tube.

Ah...but that's also Mr. Analogue.....
Also the same Mr. Who knows what's wrong with digital reproduction....

Also the same person who knows how cartridges should be designed???

Granted, I don't know much about SS designs...heard some good ones in my lifetime but nothing ever came close to the better tubed designs...

Probably my bad...

Can anyone reassure me here? CD betters Analogue no end, right? Right???...

Guess not...


Cheers,;)
 
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