DESCRIPTION :

The fine grain of the wood and the special resin content come together create a new cartridge with an organic and sensual sound the like of which has never been seen.

Have you heard of YAKUSUGI cedar?

It is a type of cedar that grows naturally in mountains above 500 meters above sea level on Yakushima Island in Japan, an island registered as a World Natural Heritage site. Only trees that have lived longer than 1,000 years received the “YAKUSUGI” name.

Yakushima Island is a small island located in the southern region of Kyushu, Japan, that has a circumference of 130km. 90% of the island’s land is mountainous; it is home to a series of 1,000-meter-high mountains. The highest mountain in Kyushu is located on Yakushima Island. (Mt. Miyanoura-dake: 1936m)

ost of the mountainous terrain on Yakushima Island consists of granite. It has little fertile soil.

How, then, do the YAKUSUGI cedars grow?

They take root in the thin layer of moss that grows along granite, and slowly, slowly grows on what little nutrition can be gathered.

Yakushima Island has an environment with weather conditions that are extremely harsh for trees, with an annual rainfall of more than 10,000mm, roughly five times that of Japan as a whole, and an annual average mountain top temperature of 6 to 7 degrees Celsius.

Because of this, the tree rings of YAKUSUGI cedar are only 1 to 2 mm wide, due to their very slow growth. They have also evolved to create a resin specialized to protect them internally from the rain eating away at them, creating fantastical trees that can live over 1,000 years.

YAKUSUGI cedar has been a cherished building material since the Edo period because it is straight and easy to handle, and after World War II, the cedars were cut down in large quantities throughout the post-war reconstruction and during the period of reconstruction and the high growth era.

YAKUSUGI cedar logging was banned when the island was recognized as a World Heritage Site in 1995, after conservation efforts. By 2001, the logging of YAKUSUGI cedars ended completed, with only fallen trees and buried wood could be taken off the island, which were then auctioned off. In 2013, the auction of the trees banned as well.

The only YAKUSUGI cedar available today is that which was already felled and taken off of Yakushima Island. The amount of YAKUSUGI cedars will not increase moving forward, assuring that they will continue to become more and more scarce.

The EX1000 is made from carefully selected lumber that were over 2,000 years old, a rarity even among YAKUSUGI cedars.

YAKUSUGI cedar’s effect on sound

YAKUSUGI cedar cartridge bodies have two distinct characteristics: extremely tight grain and the special resin contained within the material.

Research on tonewoods, wood used for musical instruments like violins or guitars, has shown that the speed at which sound travels through the wood, as well as the resin and other materials within the wood, affect the resultant sound.

As shown in the image below, wood cells are made of cellulose, but when dried, the water inside the cells evaporates, creating countless natural cavities.

Cell walls contain lignin and resins that bind the cellulose together and keep it strong. These components absorb vibrations, creating various acoustic effects that vary depending on the type of wood.

Due to its fine 1-2mm grains and the special resin it holds,YAKUSUGI cedar produces a unique sound that cannot be replicated with any other wood.

The EX1000 uses its internal structure with these properties to produce a unique sound, especially when used with live instruments.

The unmuddled sound of a full orchestra—the sound of each instrument brings the image of the stage and instruments to the mind’s eye…

The lustrous melody of the strings…

The sound of the piano, almost as if it were right next to you…

This is a cartridge for a new era—I confidently recommend it to all music fans and audiophiles