A gift from the past! Koetsu cartridges signed by Yoshiaki Sugano

After about 40 years in the audio business I have collected -without really collecting- a lot of audio and audio related material. In fact after all these years a part of our warehouse is like a small audiomuseum. Lot of things, each with their own story. Today some of these hidden treasures we want to share with you here on the blog. 30 years ago we introduced Koetsu cartridges to the European market. I went to visit Yoshiaki Sugano, the man who built the cartridges, several times. The past few weeks I shared my experiences with you through this blog. During one of these visits I received two cartridges as a gift from Mr. Sugano. One for mono and one for 78 rpm discs I think these are UNIQUE Koetsu cartridges. Signed by him and with some personal notes. Now I want to give someone the opportunity to obtain these cartridges. These have never been used and are in excellent condition. I also have 2 other Koetsu Onyx cartridges. Don’t know the condition of these, don’t know the story (if any) behind these. If someone is interested, please make me an offer before we offer them through general public websites like Ebay.

It concerns the following models:

-Koetsu Wood for mono 78 rpm records

-Koetsu Onyx for mono records, personally signed by Y. Sugano

-Koetsu Onyx for stereo records (2 pieces)

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Herman van den Dungen’s connections with Japan Part 9

碧青碧 PurpleHeart ホウ素、PurpleHeart サファイア、黒心可鍛鋳鉄のホウ素、Agaat ほう素、Agaat ルビー後、ラピスラズリ ダイヤモンドが設計されていた。・近藤さん銀有線 MC トランス、OFC MC トランス、トーン アームを再配線用の純粋な銀のケーブルを私に提供します。後で私は私の友人とも日本で作られた碧ゴールド トーン アーム設計。そして今 2014年再び奇跡カートリッジ。奇跡じゃないですか?継続するのには。

After the Kiseki Blue, the Kiseki PurpleHeart Boron, PurpleHeart Sapphire, BlackHeart Boron, Agaat Boron, Agaat Ruby, Lapis Lazuli Diamond were designed. And Mr. Kondo supplied me with Silver wired MC transformers, OFC MC transformers and pure silver cables for rewiring tone-arms. Later on I designed with my friends the Kiseki Gold tone arm which was also made in Japan. And now 2014 we are again making Kiseki cartridges. Isn’t that a MIRACLE? To be continued

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Herman van den Dungen’s connections with Japan Part 8

kiseki_blue NOS次のことは、かつてのキッド、光悦黒と競合できた新しいカートリッジ、奇跡ブルー、あったことを市場に納得させることだった。私は市場を納得させる唯一の方法は私の元のクライアント、光悦の販売代理店を説得することに気づいた。だから、最初のバッチを作製し、その間に承認されたサンプルは、例えば、非常に有名なトーンアームを作る際に彼の技術光悦の代理店の一つ、最も彼のアナログ専門のために知られていたものにし、ために送り出された。非常にすぐに私は生産に音質を維持できれば、正規の方法で同じ光悦ブラックなどの価格と供給でそれを提供できるというメッセージを得た後、順番は100個のためにすぐに配置されることになる。まあ、私は私ができる、さらには光悦ブラックよりも低い価格で確認された。彼の意見は他のクライアントや市場のために重要であり、奇跡は、高品質のフォノカートリッジとして受け入れられた。私の古い光悦の販売代理店のいくつかは、また…彼らはそれがあまりにも混乱したと思った、いくつかは、彼らがつもり、それを配布し、言ったように、一部はしなかった、奇跡を配布し始めたが、何年も自分たちの国の外に保つ。 L.しかし、とにかく、私は天にあり、約150〜200を販売することは、月の代わりに30を継続するカートリッジでした。

The next thing was to convince the market that there was a new cartridge, the Kiseki Blue, which could compete with the former Kid, the Koetsu Black. I realized that the only way to convince the market was to convince my former clients, the Koetsu distributors. So a first batch was made and in the meantime the approved sample was sent out to one of the Koetsu distributors, the one who was most known for his analog specialism and for his skills in for example making a very famous tone-arm. Very soon after I got a message that if I could keep up the sound quality in production, could offer it at the same price as the Koetsu Black and supply in a regular way, an order would be placed immediately for 100 pieces. Well, I confirmed I could, and even at a lower price than the Koetsu Black. His opinion was important for the other clients and the market and Kiseki was accepted as a high quality phono cartridge. Some of my old Koetsu distributors, also started to distribute Kiseki, some did not as they thought it was too confusing and some said they were gonna distribute it, but kept it out of their country for years …. L. But anyway, I was in heaven and was selling about 150-200 cartridges a month instead of 30. To be continued.

 

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Herman van den Dungen’s connections with Japan Part 7

kisekipaintingだから…私たちは、新しいカートリッジと “名前”が必要とされたました。私は私の日本人の友人の一人「私は新しいスタートを切る」の日本語訳を尋ねた。答えは “Atara々しいkadode」またはそのような何かだった。私は戻って答えた:「ブランド名などのカートリッジで印刷するには長すぎる」。だから私は「奇跡」の日本語訳を求めた。答えは…「奇跡」。私は高10メートルを跳んだ。新しいブランド名が発見された、美しい名前は、私たちのハイエンドの家族の友人の一人によって、このような失礼な方法で私とDaveから誘拐された私の元光悦の子…継続するフォローアップするためにどのような。

So … we had a new cartridge and a “name” was needed. I asked one of my Japanese friends the Japanese translation of “I make a new start”. The answer was “Atara shii kadode” or something like that. I answered back: “too long to print on a cartridge as brand name”. So I asked for the Japanese translation of  “miracle”. The answer was … “Kiseki”. I jumped 10 meters high. A new brand name was found and what a beautiful name to follow up my former Koetsu child which was kidnapped from me and Dave in such a rude way by one of our high-end family friends … To be continued.

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