JRDG Company Special – Complement Phono Cartridge

Available Late 80’s, early 90’s

Retail Price Standard Complement – $2500US
Retail Price LH Complement – $1500US

These were made in the late 80’s, early 90’s for Jeff Rowland by Ikeda.
Unique in being cantilever-less MC designs.

Alternate version in black

Info from an owner of this cartridge on Lencoheaven.net:

It was smooth, performed well with Jazz. It was not as dynamic as the Decca, but this is really a Decca design with MC coils. The sound is easy on the ear. However, the cart might have performed much better on a 12 inch heavy arm such as FR64S or Schick as the IKEDA designed the FR arms and he went on to make his own 12 inch IKEDA arms. The Jeff Rowland cartridge was the start of IKEDA carts, but its hard to comment if the modern carts are better. In any event, the IKEDA requires a lot of patience when setting up. Your patience will be rewarded. The IKEDA will only perform in a heavy tone arm.

I first encountered the IKEDA many years ago. At the time I used a Decca C4E with a Garrott Microscanner. The Decca 4s have been my reference cartridges ever since. Just so that you know my bias. Back then a friend of mine offered me to buy his IKEDA. I mounted it in my Forsell arm and it sounded quite wonderful and it certainly bettered the Decca in several areas. The problem was that there was no way we could make it track. We tried another linear arm with the same result. In those years I did not have the knowledge to realise that the Forsell and the IKEDA was a total mismatch. Basically the IKEDA  had a lot in common with the Decca in terms of speed and energy. It was certainly superior in the top end and totally without any hum so it would have been an interesting proposition if it was not for its inability to track. I don’t recall what model it was since it was so long ago.

This spring (2011) I bought a 9 REX KIWAMI from Juki in Hong Kong. After trying to set it up for about three weeks without getting it to sound OK I came to the conclusion that there was something seriously wrong with it. I returned it to Juki and after some correspondence he sent me a new replacement in June. Juki does not have a great command of the English language but I must say that his business ethics are impeccable. I would not hesitate to do business with him again.

The REX KIWAMI has many things in common with the Deccas. It is very fast if not all the way up to the Deccas. It is however faster than any other cartridge that I know of save for the STAX CPX. One of the things that I really like in the Deccas is their  ability to keep the frequency response intact during dynamic passages. I  believe this is one of the reasons that it sounds so life like. Well this ability is also a present  in the IKEDA even if not totally in the Decca class IMO.

So why do I now use the IKEDA instead of the Decca? Well it has some qualities that I have not heard in any other cartridge. The top end is very very delicate and precise yet it is powerful and energetic. This quality I believe also contributes,  to the amazing  and unique ability  when it comes to portraying nuances , timbre and full-bodied  tones of the various instruments. Here it clearly surpasses the Deccas IMO. I now feel hampered by my limited command of the English language to clearly express what I mean.

Since I installed the IKEDA I have played more records than I have done in 10 years. The strengths of the IKEDA has made me play a lot of piano music and small group Jazz  with Saxophones. Yesterday I played Mahlers 1st with Boston Symphony conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Despite of this being a DG it sounded very musical and involving. I have found that even if a record has a rather thin frequency balance you very quickly get sucked into the musical event and drop your reservations about the way it was recorded.

This spring I also had a Decca SC4E rertipped with a Paratracer. I only set it up to see if it worked and would really like to give it a chance in the Jakaranda arm wand made for the Rabco but I just don’t want to dismount the IKEDA. I have decided to make a new arm wand for one of my other Rabcos to make a comparison.

Stereophile reviewed it in the July 1989 issue and later gave it a Class A rating – Recommended Components.

As I understand it, this is an MC cartridge that is based on the Decca Principle, rather than the regular MC method. Sadly this is all the info I could find. If you have more info or specs, do please let me know.

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