Ortofon

Ortofon A/S is a Danish manufacturer of electronic audio equipment. It is the world's largest producer of magnetic cartridges for phonograph turntables, with 500,000 cartridges sold annually.^[1]

Ortfon was founded in Copenhagen as the Electrical Phono Film Company on 9 October 1918 by Danish engineers Axel Petersen and Arnold Poulsen. Initially focusing on sound film technology, Petersen and Poulsen experimented with synchronizing sound with moving pictures on film.^[2]

Ortofon began to diversify into gramophone record playback and cutting equipment towards the end of World War II. In 1946, the company was renamed to FonoFilm Industry A/S. In April 1947, Ortofon A/S was founded as a trading company under the FonoFilm Industry A/S umbrella.

The firm pioneered the use of moving coil technology in phonograph equipment; the first cutting head based on this technology was introduced in 1945.^[3] Ortofon's first moving coil magnetic cartridge, the AB model,^[4] was launched in 1948, and similar variations of that product are still manufactured today due to demand from enthusiasts.^[1] In 1959, the first Stereo Pick-Up SPU, which aimed at professionals, appeared.^[5] This pick-up is produced in different versions until today, for example SPU Meister in 1992, SPU 95th Anniversary in 2015.^[5] When Ortofon turned 80 years old, the MC Jubilee was introduced, marking the first time Ortofon used a metal housing manufactured with Metal injection molding.^[5][6] In 2000, on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the death of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach, an MC-Series "Kontrapunkt" was presented. The models were named b, a, c, and h, wherein the b has a cantilever made of ruby.^[7] For the frame of the housing stainless steel was used. Successor of these pickups became the Cadenza-series in 2009.^[8] In 2019, a new cantilever appeared, the Anna Diamond, with a cantilever made of diamond.^[9]

The first moving magnet-pickup M-15 was launched in 1969; here Ortofon used for the first time the patented Variable Magnetic Shunt (VMS) generating system which was offered until the 1980s.^[10] In 1979, Ortofon presented the DJ-pickup Concorde in a new design.^[5] In 2007 Ortofon introduced the moving magnet-series 2M. Its design resembles facets of a diamond and was created in collaboration with Moeller Jensen.^[5][11] In 2018, the 2nd generation of the Concorde was released.^[5]

DJs currently account for three-quarters of Ortofon's cartridge sales, the remainder being sold for audiophile and consumer audio use.^[1] Low-cost Ortofon cartridges, such as the OM-5E, are often supplied as standard on budget-priced consumer turntables, including the Pro-Ject Debut range. The Ortofon OM series stylus assemblies are interchangeable, allowing users to easily mount a more expensive stylus on a cheaper cartridge.

The 2020 presented Revox Studiomaster T700 is delivered with a Quintet Bronze MC.^[12]

In 2004, the company was taken over by a group of private investors.^[13]

Since 2010, Ortofon Microtech has manufactured custom-made high-precision TPE and Technical Rubber components and components for hearing aids.^[14][15] In 2013, Ortofon Microtech was certified for ISO 13485.^[5]

As recently as August 2024, an article in The Wall Street Journal called out Ortofon's cartridge as a key reason for recommending record players that include it.^[16]

• OM-series
  (since 1981)^[5]
• OM-series, here with yellow DJ slide-in
• Ortofon Concorde, type Pro
• Ortofon 2M, type blue (since 2007)^[5]
• Quintet MC-series
  (since 2013)^[5]

• List of phonograph manufacturers

• Official website