Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

The evolution of Ortofon’s moving-coil mechanism is an iterative ‘work in progress’ spanning not just years but decades. For example, the wide-range damping (WRD) system – two dissimilar rubber discs, with a metal insert between, placed behind the coil armature – was patented by Ortofon’s Per Windfeld and first seen in the MC20 MkII [HFN Dec ’80]. The damper is designed to deal with cantilever resonances and improve tracking not just at HF, but at all frequencies, a claim reinforced by the exemplary groove handling witnessed during our lab tests [see PM's Lab Report]. And this, I might add, achieved with the low compliance typically associated with MC cartridges. In this respect, the MC 90X is about as good as it gets.

Another innovation is its Field Stabilising Element (FSE), a conductive cylinder that surrounds the armature in an attempt to unify the lines of flux ‘cut’ by the (quad) coils between the poles of the powerful neodymium magnet. The poleshoes of the magnet can be seen in our pictures on the previous page while the picture above shows Ortofon’s Replicant 100 diamond – minor radius is 5μm and major radius 100μm – bonded to the end of a boron rod cantilever. Note that Ortofon’s press shots (likely used elsewhere online) are actually computer renderings, and do not show the glue... PM