Ortofon MC Verismo Cartridge Diamond - An Audiophile's Best Friend

Diamond - An Audiophile's Best Friend

In an effort to improve the 'coupling' between the stylus and vinyl groove at one end and, in an MC, the coils at the other, the ideal cantilever would be both infinitely stiff and vanishingly lightweight. Hardly practical, but it explains why exotic cantilever materials have proved popular in high-end pick-ups since 1979 when Dynavector launched its Karat Diamond and Ruby MCs [HFN Nov '80] and Technics used a boron pipe in its EPC-205 MM [HFN Dec '80 & Sep '18]. As ever, the choice of material is a compromise between physical properties, cost and practical considerations – it's a lot simpler to mount a diamond on a shank through one end of an aluminium cantilever [Vertere Sabre, HFN Feb '22] than to glue it onto a boron pipe [AVID Boron, HFN Apr '21] or diamond rod, for example [see inset micrograph].

422orto.side

For the Verismo, budget was not an issue so Ortofon could look dispassionately at diamond, its 1100GPa Young's modulus making it 2x 'stiffer' than boron, 3x that of ruby and 15x that of aluminium, although it is slightly denser, increasing the cantilever's moving mass. Ortofon faced this conundrum most recently with its Anna Diamond [HFN Oct '19], tackling the weight/inertia issue by reducing the number of (moving) coil turns while simultaneously beefing-up the neodymium magnet's field strength to mitigate any drop in output. It also improved the mechanical behaviour of the cantilever under load using a rubber suspension impregnated with carbon nanotubes. PM

COMPANY INFO
Ortofon A/S
Denmark
Supplied by: Henley Audio Ltd, UK
01235 511166
ARTICLE CONTENTS

X