Ortofon Cartridge Event

Oxford Audio

An excellent day yesterday with Henley Audio and Ortofon, who were hosted by Oxford Audio Consultants in their new demonstration room, on the outskirts of Oxford.

Rob Kellum and Ralf Ward presented eight moving-coil Ortofon cartridges from the MCX, Cadenza, and Exclusive ranges, culminating in the Verismo cartridge, which features a diamond cantilever and an exclusive stylus design.

The Oxford Audio demonstration setup used an E.A.T. FORTE S turntable with each cartridge on a pre-set headshell for ease of demonstration.

The phono stage was an E.A.T. E‑Glo FB, a fully balanced, all‑tube phono stage delivering a premium analogue output. The phono stage had an E.A.T. off-board power supply, as did the turntable.

Oxford Audio itself is now just off the A34, to the west of Oxford, making it very accessible. With plenty of parking, Barney’s cheerful welcome and truly excellent coffee, it was a great venue to attend; indeed, the Oxford Audio Music Club, where a classic album is played through, will see me return, I’m sure. Ralf from Henley Audio introduced Ortofon, reminding us of their pedigree dating back to 1918 when the Danish company was born. Ortonfon is Greek for correct sound, which was a nice takeaway.

Cartridges at the event

The cartridges across the Ortofon range vary significantly in stylus type and presentation. Styluses can be tipped and nude diamonds. A tipped or bonded diamond is where the diamond tip is mounted on a metal shank, nude diamonds, on the other hand, weigh less than their tipped counterparts with more detail inherent in their design. The MC Verisimo and MC Diamond use a diamond cantilever providing the best possible interface between the stylus and the armature.

Additionally, Ralf Ward discussed the different stylus shapes, each with unique characteristics: Spherical diamonds (also called conical) are a more standard type, while elliptical diamonds and fine-line shapes are better suited to the record’s groove. The Shibata ‘cut’ offers a further level of detail and precision in the cartridge.

The Oxford Audio electronics were Dan D’Agostino, with the Momentum preamplifier paired with two Momentum M400 MxV Monoblock Amplifiers, driving Magico A5 loudspeakers, which seemed to me to be the stars of the show, notwithstanding the excellent cartridges on show.

MCX 10

First up was the ‘entry level’ MCX 10 elliptical stylus, at £269. All the prices are confirmed on the Henley Audio Ortofon page.

The MCX 10 has an elliptical stylus mounted on an aluminium cantilever to the moving-coil generator. With all of these styli (styluses?), the cost, Ralf noted, is principally in the stylus design and cantilever arrangement (roughly 70-75%).

The first track used was Donald Fagen’s I.G.Y. from the classic album The Nightfly, on an original 1982 vinyl pressing. The MCX 10 was joyful out of the block, and the idea that we would be hearing cartridges ten times the price seemed incredible.

MCX 20

Next up was the MCX 20, which is a step up at £429. The 20 has a nude stylus, which is the only difference from the MCX 10. With the same track, there was a discernible lift in the presentation and detail from the Magico loudspeakers, which were already getting my attention with their precision yet easy soundstage

MCX 30

The MCX 30 is a further step to £599. This has a nude fine-line stylus designed to sit deeper in the groove of its shape, still on an aluminium cantilever.
We turned to Dave Brubeck’s classic Time Out track, Take Five, which was beautiful. There was a brief murmur around the room as the recording popped and struggled in the treble. We were assured this was a function of the record’s age, which has been to many shows in the last few years.

The MCX 30 is one of Ortofon’s best-selling MC cartridges, offering a balance of price and performance at a keenly contested industry price point. It certainly merits a demonstration.

MCX 40

Next up in the MCX range was the MCX 40, priced at £875. This features a nude Shibata stylus, this time on a lighter boron cantilever. All these cartridges have the same 2.0g tracking force, 6 Ohms resistance and weigh 8.6 grams. This different nude Shibata diamond cut exposes even more surface area to the groove and more closely reflects the shape of most lathes that cut the record in the first place.

Playing Ella Fitzgerald’s Black Coffee, this was possibly the best sound of the day so far, with her incredible vocal captivating the room in equal measure.

CADENZA Bronze

We then moved to the CADENZA range with the £1999 Bronze cartridge. There are red and blue options priced below this in the range, but we went directly to this Nude Ortofon Replicant stylus on a conical (hollow, I think) cantilever. This different stylus has a better shape, but it requires more tracking force, at 2.5 grams. The idea is to extract yet more information from the seemingly bottomless vinyl groove.

A rerun of Black Coffee for me delivered deeper vocals in the Magico soundstage, with the low end lifted to a degree; it really was captivating.

We then had a run-through of The Doors’ Riders on the Storm before moving to the CADENZA Black.

CADENZA Black

The CADENZA Black has a nude Shibata stylus type on a boron cantilever with a lighter tracking force of 2.3g. The presentation was smooth as you want it to be, with “the storm” seemingly breaking around us in the Oxford Audio Studio. In terms of improvement, my fellow participant and I struggled to hear the improvement that was there.

Exclusive Series MC WINFELD & MC VERISMO

The afternoon session concluded with the Exclusive Series MC Winfeld TI stylus (£4000) and the MC Verismo (£5749). These premium offerings were exceptional; the Exclusive Series styluses have a neodymium magnet that makes the generator compact and lighter. This offers a higher level of microdynamic detail. The stylus on these cartridges is the proprietary Nude Ortofon Replicant 100 stylus type, with the WinFeld having a boron cantilever and the super light Verismo having a diamond cantilever.

In Annette Askvik’s Liberty, the saxophone detail was stunning in the Magicos; the breath in the air and silences were captivating, offering some of the most mature and natural vocals of the session. This track, Liberty, was breathtaking with both cartridges, and it has already found its way onto my Reference Playlist.

Thoughts

What stayed with me after this event? First, the sheer quality of Oxford Audio’s setup — easy to reach, warmly hosted, free, and supported by one of the finest demo rooms I’ve ever sat in. Then there’s Henley Audio, whose enthusiasm and depth of knowledge always seem to lift the room. And finally, Ortofon’s breadth of choice really struck me; there’s a cartridge for every listener and every budget, and hearing them properly demonstrated makes all the difference.

But the real takeaway came later, somewhere on the motorway home, when the day settled into focus. The relationship between stylus and cantilever — something often spoken about but rarely felt — emerged as the true heart of the session. Understanding that interplay more deeply was the quiet reward of the whole experience.

Thank you, Oxford Audio and Henley Audio.