Ortofon Bronze MM Cartridge $440

Best Bang For Your Buck!

There are zillions of cartridge choices out there. Which cart, out of all of them, hits the point of diminishing returns? I’m here to tell you, it’s the Ortofon Bronze 2M Moving Magnet cartridge. It will give you the biggest slice of very high end vinyl at an attainable price point.

Why?

Ortofon

First of all, Ortofon is a REAL MANUFACTURER, based in Denmark. Yup, Ortofon builds its own cartridges in its own house with Danish TENDER LOVING CARE.

I’m not saying what comes out of Asia is no good. I AM saying NOBODY has Ortofon’s dedication to detail throughout its product line.

Make no mistake, cartridge manufacturing is precision work. Ortofon is the most reliable REAL MANUFACTURER of carts out there! You MIGHT know that there are many “designer names” out there, where the cart is ACTUALLY BUILT by a generic vendor. Pay them enough money and they’ll slap whatever name you want on your OEM’d cart.

Ortofon makes precision cartridges with consistency. THIS, is a major deal. Nobody makes as wide a line as Ortofon, from $100 to above $10k, with the solid reliability of Ortofon.

We certainly think it’s cool that there are artisans in the far east that will hand make phono cartridges. But guess what? Their consistency isn’t solid. The fellas doing this work are getting OLD.
No two of them are the SAME! What you get might be grade A. But you are very likely not to get the geezer’s best work!

 

Bronze 2M $440

The Bronze 2M is an MM cart with 5.0 mV output. Many moving magnets provide half that output, which will reveal the noise of a less than stellar phono preamp. With 5.0 output- it’s plenty for any MM phono section to work with- without adding superfluous noise.

The Bronze 2M has Ortofon’s cut above Split Pole cartridge “engine.” It’s a notch above even Ortofon’s famous Red & Blue carts. It provides better separation and definition.

The Bronze 2M has Ortofon’s Fine Line nude stylus. The stylus is a laser fit nude diamond through the cantilever. It isn’t a tiny chunk of diamond glued to the cantilever’s mounting block. The advantage of the Fine Line shape is that it goes deep into the groove for accurate tracing, but it doesn’t scrape the side walls as much as a Shibata shape.

Now, the Shibata shape is fine for records that are NEW, 180-200g and in mint shape. If you are running records that are ANYTHING BUT, and most of you ARE, I prefer the Bronze’s Fine Line.

Heaven forbid you enjoy buying USED records! They are notoriously noisy as people have ice skated across them over the years. Stick with the Fine Line to avoid smashing off the side walls like a bob sled.

The Bronze 2M uses SILVER PLATED copper wire. It has better detail and clarity than copper alone. You’ll find the same story with interconnects and speaker wire by the way.

The Bronze 2M has a Lexan DMX body. It has high rigidity and reduces body resonance in the process.

The Bronze 2M weighs 7.2g and has a compliance of 22- which makes it a good fit for almost any arm- and it’s an outstanding tracker. Tracking force is 1.5.

Musically, the Bronze 2M is known for its edge of the art clarity and noticeably superior stereo separation. It traces beautifully without picking up groove wall mechanical interference. It does the best job of getting the most music, without letting the mechanics of the medium interfere.

In addition to clarity, the term most used by experienced vinyl guys when talking about their new Bronze- it is “burnished.” The detail Bronze can achieve, while providing a warm presentation, is unique for the price point.

To beat a Bronze 2M without eating loads of surface noise on less than perfect records, you’ll have to go to the MC Cadenza Bronze, $2309. We’d be happy to do biz with you on one of those if you like!