When I reviewed the Etsuro Urushi Cobalt Blue moving-coil cartridge in July, I came away extremely impressed by its superb reproduction. So when Unique Audio (Etsuro’s UK distributor) offered me the chance to review its more exotic stablemate, the Urushi Bordeaux (US$7500, CA$8725, £7250, €7500), they didn’t have to ask twice.
The Etsuro range is the most elite line of cartridges made by Japan’s Excel Sound Corporation. Excel has built a reputation for high quality and currently manufactures cartridges for a wide array of famous brands. It’s important to note that Excel specifies the design for their cantilever assemblies, diamond stylus tips, housings, and specialized rubber dampers, which are sourced from third-party specialist suppliers. Once these components arrive at the Yokohama factory, Excel uses a combination of semiautomatic machines and hand winding for the coils. Their engineers mount the cantilevers to their own proprietary suspension dampers, hand-wind the coils onto the armatures, and tune the magnetic circuits to achieve their signature sound.
Description
The Bordeaux is a significant step up from the Cobalt Blue, which costs £4250 in the UK. The Bordeaux’s generator/body assembly couples to the headshell through a 2.5mm sapphire plate, whereas the Cobalt Blue has a duralumin base. Etsuro says the sapphire plate improves rigidity and vibration transmission and reduces energy loss. In addition, the Bordeaux features gold-plated output pins rather than the rhodium-plated pins on the Cobalt Blue. Finally, the generator assembly is tuned differently.
The bodies of both cartridges have Urushi lacquer finishes. This is a traditional, highly labor-intensive Japanese technique that uses the sap from mature lacquer trees. After the sap is extracted and processed, it is applied in layers by hand and then left to cure. What results is a beautiful glossy film, which is both extremely strong and resilient. The Urushi lacquer on the Bordeaux is a multilayer special-grade Bordeaux-pigmented lacquer, whereas the Cobalt Blue features a single-color lacquer.
In other respects, the two cartridges are almost identical. Both have A7075 duralumin bodies, output 0.25mV, quote a 3‑ohm internal impedance, and use the same 80μm microline diamond stylus, which is mounted on a 0.4mm-diameter sapphire cantilever pipe. Both use high-purity copper coils and samarium-cobalt magnets. Specified frequency response of the Bordeaux is 15Hz–50kHz, channel balance is within 0.5dB, and the recommended tracking force is 2g.
The presentation is suitably exotic; a deep-burgundy parchment outer sleeve is printed with gold Etsuro Urushi branding and proudly proclaims that this cartridge is made in Japan. Inside the sleeve is a paulownia-wood box engraved with the Etsuro Urushi logo. The cartridge is mounted to a Perspex mounting plate with two brass mounting screws. I elected not to use these for my installation. Instead, I used the hex bolts that came with my Lyra Kleos SL cartridge because they offer a more secure head for tightening. There was no manual supplied with my review sample, just a couple of brief leaflets. Overall, the box and the look of the cartridge are delightful, but I would have liked to see information about the heritage and design of the product as well as some guidance on setup. This felt like a missed opportunity for such a high-end design.
Also, given the effort that goes into making Etsuro Urushi cartridges, it’s disappointing they don’t come with a test printout from the factory—but they are not unique in this respect. A few years ago, every respectable moving-coil cartridge, including budget-priced models, came with a test printout confirming adherence to spec. I would have liked to see this done with a cartridge operating at as rarified a level as the Bordeaux.
Listening
A cartridge of such elevated stature demands a turntable of commensurate quality, and the SME Model 35 is such a turntable. Given its low output, the Urushi Bordeaux requires a phono stage with exceptionally low noise and high gain. The Mola Mola Lupe, which I have been using for several months, is ideally suited to such a task—it is the quietest phono stage I have ever used. Moreover, the Lupe can accommodate a very wide range of loadings and lets you make adjustments on the fly with the record still playing.
The rest of the review setup comprised my Naim Audio NAC 332 preamplifier and NAP 350 monoblocks feeding ATC’s SCM40 loudspeakers. As usual, the whole system was fed by a dedicated mains spur and mounted on Townshend Seismic Isolation Bars.
Etsuro cartridges need around 50 hours to run in and achieve their maximum performance, but so good was the sound right off the bat that I started critical listening immediately. First up was “Africa” from Toto IV (CBS 85529). Jeff Porcaro’s signature drumming sounded stunningly precise and taut, but with a little less bass weight from the box-fresh Bordeaux than I recall hearing from the well-run-in Cobalt Blue. As the rest of the band entered, I became aware of just how highly resolving this cartridge is. The Bordeaux proved itself an absolute detail demon, revealing things that lesser cartridges leave in the grooves. I’m thinking mainly of low-level keyboards buried in the mix, the timbre of singer David Paich’s vocal delivery, the subtle decay of a cymbal fading into inky-black silence, and the sense of depth and space across the soundstage. Within seconds, I could tell that the Etsuro Urushi Bordeaux was the finest phono cartridge I had yet deployed in my system, despite it not being fully run in. It was also apparent that this cartridge offers staggeringly low surface noise, even on heavily played records like this one, which has been well cared for but is over 30 years old. The Bordeaux also proved incredibly adept at carrying a tune and delivering the glorious rhythms in this track with startling precision and groove.
My favorite album of 2026 is the soundtrack to The Ballad of Wallis Island (Decca 7809914). This is a sublime collection of songs written, performed, and played by Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan. On “Our Love,” the rich, woody tone of Basden’s Atkin Essential D dreadnought guitar was imbued with a fabulously aged tonewood voice via the Bordeaux. I could feel every fingerpick on the strings, as if Basden was playing right in front of me. And the way the Bordeaux delivered Mulligan’s backing vocals was utterly enchanting.
“Lover, Please Stay” is a song about unexpectedly reconnecting with the great love of your life after many years and wanting to spend just one more day together. The SME-Bordeaux combination conveyed all of this with what some would call “tubey goodness,” but crucially it also dug deep into the recording, bringing it to life and imparting all of its emotional richness. The performers were right in front of me in my listening room to a degree that was spellbinding and thrilling. Where the track demanded it, the Bordeaux reacted with lightning speed and effortless dynamics. Details like Basden’s fingers sliding against the body of the guitar with a squeak were stunningly transparent.
There’s a deeply beguiling naturalness to the way that the Etsuro Urushi Bordeaux conveys recordings, and I found myself playing more and more albums just to experience it. I felt that the presentation was just fractionally on the warm side of neutral, which made even poor recordings sound more inviting than usual.
This was demonstrated when I began playing through some of my 1980s favorites, such as REO Speedwagon’s ninth album, Hi Infidelity (Epic FE 36844), and Asia’s second album, Alpha (Geffen GEF 25508). These are recordings that tend towards sounding bright and lack true bass extension. But the Bordeaux consistently delivered generally sweet highs and conveyed what bass was actually on the albums in full. As the cartridge ran in, the bass gradually became slightly fuller—never exaggerated, but enough to convey the warmth and richness of instruments at the lower end. But no cartridge can ever make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. U2’s The Joshua Tree (Island Records U26) remained as irredeemable as ever.
I recently acquired an original early copy of Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 6 and The Lark Ascending with the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult on the original HMV red-and-black label (EMI ASD 2329). This proved a real treat via the Bordeaux, with Hugh Bean’s violin on The Lark Ascending sweetly rendered in the sizeable acoustic space of Abbey Road Studio One. Bean’s violin really did seem to float above the orchestra, just like the skylark in flight that the piece is intended to represent. Flutes had a beautifully airy quality, perfectly complementing the lead violin with their bird-like phrases in the middle section. The pastoral quality of the work was enhanced by the mellow lower registers of oboe and bassoon, and the whole system seemed to offer extraordinarily wide bandwidth and a truly wide-open window into the recording. I mentioned before how the Bordeaux is a detail monster, and this character was again revealed here, with the cartridge enabling the sparing use of triangle deep in the mix to be clearly heard. This was never at the expense of the whole, though; the orchestra was never dissected. It remained at all times a gorgeous, cohesive ensemble where the interplay between the instruments was startlingly apparent no matter how busy the recording became.
The foregoing is a mere snapshot of the many records I played during my time with this exceptional cartridge. I couldn’t help pulling out perhaps the finest seven minutes and 52 seconds that Roxy Music ever committed to vinyl: “My Only Love” from The High Road (Polydor 2335 269), a four-track EP of their legendary concert in September 1982 at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow during their Avalon tour. The Bordeaux painted a huge soundstage, extending far beyond the speakers. Bryan Ferry was center stage, while Andy Newmark’s sublimely executed drum fills careered around the room from extreme front-left to extreme right with stunning power and drive. Phil Manzanera’s guitar was rendered with fabulous expression, an aching, wailing, but beautifully judged exercise in less-is-more for much of the piece before breaking out into full solo-showman mode and utterly letting it rip. The note shaping of his playing technique was conveyed with tremendous verve, the speed was breathtaking, and as a rendition it was nothing short of electrifying. In short, it transcended mere hi‑fi.
I have owned this record since the late ’80s and heard it on dozens of turntables, but I have never heard it reproduced quite as intensely and emotively as this. Sure, I was beyond 12 o’clock on the volume dial, which with amplification as powerful as the Naim monoblocks is basically live-concert level, but this was about much more than just shock and awe. There was supreme tonal accuracy here. It felt like real instruments playing live in a real theatre, but with the power and control that only the very finest audio equipment can deliver.
Conclusion
Without question, the Etsuro Urushi Bordeaux is the finest phono cartridge that I have ever mounted on a turntable. Indeed, this might just be the finest phono cartridge I have ever heard. Its key strengths are its astonishingly low surface noise; inky-black silences; supreme detail retrieval; facility with rhythms; and ability to reveal the acoustics of the recording space, the timbre of the instruments and voices, and the full dynamics of a recording. On multiple occasions it had me thinking, I never noticed that sound in this recording before, or, Gosh, that sounds absolutely amazing. That the Bordeaux surprised me so regularly, despite my exposure to a range of very high-end cartridges over many years, is testament to its pedigree and extreme quality.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the cost, which sadly places the Etsuro Urushi Bordeaux beyond the reach of all but the most well-heeled or committed audiophiles. Very sadly that includes me, and having lived with a cartridge so exceptional, it’s going to be hard to go back to others that cost about half as much. The Etsuro Urushi Bordeaux is audiophile crack cocaine, and once you’re hooked it’s hard to quit.
As this review draws to a close, it’s 2:15 a.m., and I’m sitting in a room illuminated by the flickering of firelight and a few candles dotted about. When Roxy Music sounds this exquisite, sometimes you just need to keep the ’table turning until dawn . . .
. . . Jonathan Gorse
jonathan@soundstage.com
Associated Equipment
- Turntables: SME Model 35 with SME Series Vi (Improved) tonearm, Michell GyroDec with SME Series IV tonearm
- Cartridges: Lyra Kleos SL, Ortofon MC 40X
- Phono preamplifiers: Mola Mola Lupe, Trichord Research Dino Mk 3 with Never Connected Dino+ power supply, PS Audio Stellar
- Streaming DAC: Naim Audio NDX 2
- CD player: Naim Audio CDI
- Preamplifier: Naim Audio NAC 332
- Power amplifier: Naim Audio NAP 350 (monoblocks)
- Loudspeakers: ATC SCM40
- Headphones: Sennheiser HD 800S, Beyerdynamic DT 880 Professional, AKG K701 Studio Reference
- Headphone amplifier: Beyerdynamic A20
- Support stands: Ash Designs Cosmic 5 and Cosmic 7 stands both suspended on Townshend Seismic Isolation Bars with load cells calibrated for individual rack weight
- Power: dedicated 100A mains spur feeding two Graham’s medical-grade, six-gang power blocks; Naim Hydra, Naim Power-Line Lites
- Cabling: Chord Company Sarum T loudspeaker cables, Naim Audio NAC A5 loudspeaker cables, Naim Audio interconnects on most Naim amplification; Chord Co. Sarum T Super ARAY XLR, Chord Co. SignatureX Tuned ARAY DIN-RCA, Chord Co. SignatureX RCA‑XLR, Chord Co. EpicX ARAY RCA-RCA; Chord Co. Signature X ARAY interconnects for phono stages, Vertere Redline RCA‑XLR between Hi‑Cap and NAP 250, QED interconnects for secondary sources
- Setup tools: AVID high-precision level with 45‑rpm adapter, Suaoki laser spirit level, Rega Atlas digital stylus force gauge, SME strobe disc, Ogeto laser measure
Etsuro Urushi Bordeaux moving-coil phono cartridge
Price: US$7500, CA$8725, £7250, €7500
Warranty: Two years
Excel Sound Corporation of Japan Ltd. & Dai-Ichi Shoji Co., Ltd.
Yokohama Landmark Tower 20th Floor
2-2-1 Minatomirai
Nishi District
Yokohama City
Kanagawa Prefecture
220-8120 Japan
Website: www.etsurojapan.com
UK distributor:
Unique Audio
Berry Grove Ln.
Watford WD25 8AE
Tel: +44 7913 964746
Email: mik@unique-audio.co.uk
US distributor:
MoFi Distribution
1811 W Bryn Mawr Ave.
Chicago IL
60660
Phone: (312) 738-5025
Website: www.mofidistribution.com
Canadian distributor:
Tri-Cell Enterprises
391 Hanlan Rd., Unit 4
Woodbridge, ON L4L 3T1
Canada
Phone: 1-800-263-8151
Website: www.tricellenterprises.com
