Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

All Ortofon’s four new MC X pick-ups share the same silver-wound coils (on a cross-shaped armature), custom suspension and dampers, one-piece magnet pole cylinder and black-coated stainless-steel honeycomb body. However, as the apex model of the range, the MC X40 boasts the stiffest boron cantilever and finest 6/50µm Shibata stylus plus, I imagine, a degree of selection during production that enables Ortofon to claim slightly superior stereo separation and response flatness for this flagship. In practice, the ’X40 meets its specified 0.4mV output at 0.44mV (re. 1kHz/5cm/sec into 100ohm) while its channel balance is tighter than the spec’d 0.5dB at 0.2dB and stereo separation a fabulous 35dB through the midrange. Furthermore, tracking at the recommended 2g downforce, it sailed through the top 80µm groove pitch and navigated the maximum +18dB groove (re. 315Hz/5cm/sec) at just <0.5% distortion. That said, the MC X40’s compliance looks closer to a slightly ‘softer’ 22cu than the quoted 15cu (resonance will be ~8Hz in a 10g effective mass arm) so medium/light arms are recommended.

The stereo response [dashed trace, Graph 1] is both flat and extended to within ±1.2dB (re. 20Hz-20kHz) although the slight asymmetry between lateral vs. vertical responses [black vs. red, Graph 1] will emphasise strong central stereo images at the expense of presence/treble details on the periphery of the soundstage. Stereo distortion (–8dB re. 5cm/sec) is very low at 0.1-0.3% through bass frequencies and <1% up to 2kHz [dashed trace, Graph 2] while the abrupt increase to ~22% at 12kHz on lateral cuts [black infill, Graph 2] is simply a reflection of the mild cantilever mode and extended response of the cartridge. PM