There are cartridges that retrieve information, and then there are cartridges that make you forget you're listening to a system at all. The Koetsu Onyx Platinum is firmly in the latter camp. Its onyx stone body — hand-selected and polished to a flawless finish — acts as a natural resonance absorber, letting the music breathe with an organic warmth that no metal-bodied cartridge can replicate. Platinum magnets and silver-sheathed copper coils push resolution and tonal color to extraordinary levels, while the boron cantilever keeps transient response razor-sharp. Stereophile's Art Dudley called it out for “boatloads of color and texture” alongside “clearer pitch certainty” than anything he'd heard — high praise from one of analog's most discerning voices. If you're ready to hear what your vinyl collection has been holding back, the Onyx Platinum is the cartridge that unlocks it.
"The end result is harmonious and cohesive, and the music unfolds in a way that gives you more time to listen – more time to unravel the individual strands that form part of the whole." Hi-Fi+
“… the Koetsu endured in delivering boatloads of color and texture, yet at the same time I’ve never heard a cartridge with greater, clearer pitch certainty on even the lowest bass notes ... All in all, the Koetsu Onyx Platinum communicated color, texture, touch, and musical nuance to an extent and in a combination that I’d never before heard ...”
Art Dudley
Stereophile
December 2018
Specifications
Onyx Stone Body
Silverplated Copper Coil Wiring
Platinum Magnet
Boron Cantilever
0.3 mV Output
12.5 g Net Weight
Recommended Tracking Force 1.8-2.0g
Recommended Load 75-500 ohms