Which Ikeda 9 Cartridge is this?

[CliveG]

I recently acquired an Ikeda IT-345 tonearm and it came with an old Ikeda 9 Cartridge, the kind without a cantilever. I believe there were several variants of this cartridge with different specs. The only other identifying mark are these Japanese characters on the side. Any body know what they mean? Also any experiences on setting up these carts?
It seems a bit skittish at 1.75g VTF better at 2.0g,but would be good to find what the manufacturer's recommendation was. Also, it needs the arm setting very low to maintain a VTA with the arm parallel to the record.
Would appreciate any info any body has or can point me to.
Ikeda9.jpg

Edit: The title should say Ikeda, damned auto-spell!

[Barry]

It's an Ikeda 9C III, a "canteleverless" cartridge, as you say. Think 'Decca' but a moving-coil design. It's a superb cartridge.

I have one, and use it mounted in an Ikeda headshell on Ikeda-modified Ortofon 12" arm: the RMG 309i arm, tracking at 2.0g VTF.

Some more information for you:

Output (at 5cm/s 45 deg at 1kHz): 0.17mV

Coil impedance: 3 Ohm

Dynamic compliance (at 1000Hz (!), maybe a typo?): 6. 10^-6 cm/dyne

Frequency response: 10Hz - 45kHz (no tolerance range given)

Separation (at 1kHz): 27dB

Mass: 14.5g

[montesquieu]

I recently acquired an Ikeda IT-345 tonearm and it came with an old Ikeda 9 Cartridge, the kind without a cantilever. I believe there were several variants of this cartridge with different specs. The only other identifying mark are these Japanese characters on the side. Any body know what they mean? Also any experiences on setting up these carts?
It seems a bit skittish at 1.75g VTF better at 2.0g,but would be good to find what the manufacturer's recommendation was. Also, it needs the arm setting very low to maintain a VTA with the arm parallel to the record.
Would appreciate any info any body has or can point me to.
Ikeda9.jpg

Edit: The title should say Ikeda, damned auto-spell!

Great cartridges, if hard to align in an arm because the stylus is quite far back in the body. I had the 9C III which I sold to Barry. I now have the later 9TT which has a more conventional cantilever - the cantileverless design stopped when Ikeda-san retired and sold up the business in 2011, wisdom has it that unlike the arms, which he designed but construction of which was farmed out in full or in part, he manufactured all the cartridges personally.

This is certainly a model 9C, but there were quite a few versions made and no easy way to track them, I don't think it's a III, the gold body suggests it may be another variant. Ikeda also made variants for Cello and for Jeff Rowland, the latter was gold bodied but also signed Jeff Rowland so it isn't one of those.

As for the characters, it's actually a single compound ideograph - a single word really and originally Chinese, the Kanji character used in Japanese expresses the same idea but is generally not pronounced the same way - that means something like highest position, top rank or utmost point. According to the wife anyway.

Welcome to the Ikeda club BTW I have a late (chrome) IT-345 CR1 as well as an early IT-407.

Edit - I found this was happiest in the 12in Ikeda arm at 2.5g. It's heavy though about 37g in its headshell.

[Barry]

The Ikeda variant made for Jeff Roland was the 'Decca-like' cantileverless design.

But I've just noticed Clive's Ikeda is gold coloured, whereas my C9 III (ex 'montesquieu' - thanks Tom ) has a silver-grey finish. Looking at mine, the lack of a cantilever is obvious.

[Lawrence001]

When I saw the title I thought Ikea had made a major move upwards in the vinyl stakes from record storage to high quality cartridges

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

[Barry]

When I saw the title I thought Ikea had made a major move upwards in the vinyl stakes from record storage to high quality cartridges

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

Title now corrected!

[CliveG]

Thanks for the useful information chaps. Judging by the way my cartridge performs the specs will not be far from those of the 9C III above.
I spent last evening fiddling with the set up and it sounds very good indeed. Very similar character to Isamu Ikeda's earlier Fidelity Research FR-7 but with a weightier and faster sound. Certainly one to add to the collection, which I had been working so hard to reduce recently.

[CliveG]

I think I have solved the mystery.
After some time spent with Google I have now found out that it is an Ikeda 9 "Kiwame". It was apparently reviewed in Stereophile in 1993. Output is 0.17 mV same as the C MkIII but VTF is 1.8 - 2.5 g with 2.0 being optimum. That pretty much tallies with what I've found in practice.
According to Google Translate "Kiwame" means "Fine", which is line with Tom's information above.
It certainly has to be a fairly rare cartridge considering how little information there is on it out there. Not bad for a freebie that came with a tonearm as "not tested or warranted" and apparently in storage for the past 15 years.

[Barry]

Yes, it would appear to be an Ikeda 9REX 'Kiwame': https://audiocirc.com/2016/06/12/moving-iron/.

I didn't know Ikeda had designed another cantileverless MC cartridge. Let us know how you get on with it!

[CliveG]

Found this on a 2012 thread on What's Best Audio and Video Forum:
"I always thought the Kiwami was the "ultimate" version of the 9Rex and was intended for the domestic Japaneses market. The Japanese/Chinese character on the body of the Kiwami version literally means ultimate or summit"
I have a copy of the February 1993 Stereophile magazine on its way which apparently carries a review of the cartridge.
Gradually getting there. It's amazing how much information is out there if you persevere.