Головки звукоснимателя — Ortofon 2M Red

The 2M Red is the entry model of the Ortofon 2M series of moving magnet cartridges, a family whose body was developed together with the Danish industrial design studio Moller Jensen Design. The faceted shell takes its shape from a cut diamond, with contours meant to follow the line of the record groove. Ortofon lists the cartridge at EUR 99, and the family is offered in several mounting formats so that the same generator can fit many turntables.

Key specs that matter

Output is 5.5 mV at 1 kHz and 5 cm per second. An aluminium cantilever carries an elliptical diamond whose tip radii measure 8 and 18 microns. Dynamic lateral compliance is 20 microns per mN, and tracking ability reaches 70 microns at 315 Hz. Ortofon recommends a tracking force of 1.8 g inside a window of 1.6 to 2.0 g. Frequency response runs from 20 Hz to 20 kHz within plus 3 and minus 1 dB, channel separation is 22 dB at 1 kHz, and channel balance holds within 1.5 dB. DC resistance is 1.3 kohm and inductance 700 mH. The bare cartridge weighs 7.2 g, while the premounted version with its headshell comes to 16.7 g. The finish is black with a red stylus holder.

Engineering and use context

Inside, a quad-coil generator uses split pole pins and coils wound from oxygen-free copper wire, an arrangement Ortofon uses to keep the two channels well matched. The body combines polymer and aluminium, which keeps mass low while giving the mounting face a rigid top. The standard version has a half-inch mount with two screws, and three other formats share the same generator - the 2M Premounted comes fitted to a headshell for S-shaped tonearms, the 2M Verso suits bottom-mount headshells, and the 2MR has the dimensions required by Rega-type arms. Because the stylus assembly pulls off the front of the body, a worn tip can be renewed without removing and realigning the cartridge. The elliptical profile meets the groove wall with a smaller radius than a spherical tip does, so it can follow short high-frequency modulations more closely, at the cost of slightly more care over alignment.

Pairing

The recommended load is 47 kohm in parallel with 150 to 300 pF, the standard setting of almost any moving magnet phono input, and the fairly high output suits phono stages with modest gain, including those built into many integrated amplifiers and turntables. The mid compliance points to tonearms of medium effective mass.

Alternatives

The Ortofon 2M Blue moves to a nude elliptical diamond and is listed at EUR 199.