Welcome to the new Ortofon Hi-Fi newsletter

Ortofon today: heritage and modern technology

Last year we celebrated the 90th anniversary of Ortofon as a company and as a company working with acoustics and sound. Ortofon has a long history and a rich heritage, but the important point is to have something to offer today’s consumer. It is therefore our ambition to offer an attractive proposition to today’s customers, as well as preserving our rich technological heritage. We preserve our heritage by continuously investing in technology and product development and thus introducing new cartridges, like we have just done with the Cadenza and MC A-90.

Ortofon today represents the essence of a niche company. We have manufacturing facilities and R&D located in Denmark and we are globally active on 3 markets:

• The analog hifi market with cartridges, accessories, tonearms and cables.
• The DJ market with cartridges, headphones and accessories.
• The Business-to-Business market, where we supply components and parts to the hearing aid and medico industry.

It is our strategy to have competences in acoustics, materials, vibration, simulations, fine mechanicals and networking. We have a strong portfolio of partners and suppliers, and believe the way forward for a small to medium sized company is focus and networking. We are focusing on these competences and networking globally, which we believe will bring us to the forefront.

Through this newsletter we want to stay in touch with our customers, tell you what is happening at Ortofon and keep you up-to-date with our product portfolio.

The Cadenza is now available

The new Ortofon flagship line Cadenza, consisting of 5 models, was first shown at the Munich High End show last May. Shipments of these new cartridges have begun the following August. Consequently, the Candenza cartridges are becoming to be available in the HiFi shops now. The Cadenza sets new standards for fine mechanical precision and moves the Ortofon sound accuracy yet another step further. The series also includes a mono version.

The first review appeared in UK, Hi-fi World in August, featuring the Cadenza Blue and Bronze. The verdict:

"Wonderful sound from 2 great moving coil cartridges, both able to give astonishing results
 from LP. Breathtakingly good."

You can read the  full review here. More info about the Cadenzas will follow in the coming Newsletters. Meanwhile, visit our Cadenza pages for general information and technical details.

2M Series – Red and Blue

Introduced in 2007, Ortofon’s 2M Series of Moving Magnet cartridges have easily become one of our most well-received products in recent history. Far from just another MM cartridge, the 2Ms have raised the bar for cartridges in the under-$1000 price range. In fact, thousands of 2Ms have been sold since their introduction with an abundance of fanfare from audio publications and aficionados alike.

Coming from a legacy of famous magnetic cartridges (such as the famous Super OM series and the respectable and well-known VMS cartridges), engineering the 2M Series to provide a measurable increase in performance was no small feat. Improved generator systems were developed as the core of the cartridge, raising the output voltage to 5.0 to 5.5mV (which provides similar amplitude of line-level sources). The top two models in the line, the 2M Bronze and 2M Black, were also outfitted with silver-plated copper wire along with optimized engines to compliment their use of exotic stylus profiles, bringing out more detail with powerful dynamic capabilities. In order to provide optimum compatibility (specifically with modern contemporary tonearm designs), the weight of the cartridge body has been increased to 7.2 grams along with a completely redesigned suspension. Additional improvement to internal damping is provided through the use of a newly-developed Noryl plastic/glass combination – a revolutionary new material which ensures high rigidity while eliminating unwanted resonances. The result of this all has yielded outstanding performance; the 2M Blue is described by HiFi World’s Noel Keywood as having “…the freshest delivery I’ve ever heard, short of a moving coil.”   

Finally, a redesign of the cartridge body was in order, bringing the aesthetics of the 2M Series into the 21st century by Danish designer Møller Jensen. Inspired by the facets of the very diamonds whose contours gracefully trace the grooves on a record’s surface, the 2M’s handsome elegance establishes a great combination of form and functionality. Its unique cosmetics are a perfect compliment to the 2M series, providing visual characteristics which are equally appealing as its sonic character.

The2M Red and 2M Blue, although moderately priced, deliver an extremely high price-to-performance ratio for general purpose playback of all musical genres. Perfect for casual listeners of vinyl, the 2M Red uses an Elliptical stylus. The 2M Blue dons a Nude Elliptical diamond, which provides longer life, more revealing detail and more open high end frequency response. Neil Gader of The Absolute Sound, one of the many proponents of the 2M Series, even remarked, “[the 2M Red] is one sophisticated and musical cartridge – for the price of a nice dinner for two”. At their fairly modest prices, the 2M Red and Blue won’t serve as a replacement for true high end cartridges, but they do make it very possible for even budget audiophiles to be able to enjoy the realistic, lifelike and harmonically infused sound that vinyl can provide.

Ortofon accessories  

Ortofon offers the analog hi-fi user 3 main product categories: cartridges,tonearms and cables. Additionally, Ortofon offers a range of usefulaccessories, that we will present in this and coming newsletters. In this newsletter we would like to present some of our headshells.

Ortofon headshells

Ortofon offers a range of headshells with SME mount. They are especially designed by Ortofon to enhance the sonic experience with an Ortofon cartridge. The headshells are quality made from a manufacturer of precision equipment in Japan. They all have copper headshell cables with gold covered contacts.

A brief history of Ortofon

Upcoming Newsletter issues

 In our following Newsletters a series of articles will be presented, including:

• Measuring techniques
• The history of the  company

• New products.