Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

It's long been said that 'diamonds are a girl's best friend' but, according to Ortofon, they also have the potential to be the number one chum of any vinyl fan. While diamonds have been used for styli for decades, few manufacturers have the skill or, indeed, the budget to implement them elsewhere. Enter the Ortofon MC Diamond – the company's new £7349 flagship low-output moving-coil that features not only a diamond stylus, but also a diamond cantilever.

A quick web trawl shows that there are now more than a dozen cartridges on the market costing over £10,000, with Kuzma's CAR-70 at roughly $42,000. Ulp! Premium models from Glanz, Clearaudio, ZYX, et al aren't far off that. I suppose it was only natural that Ortofon would find it prudent to top its range of over 50 models with the new MC Vertex costing £12,999, almost double that of the second dearest in its catalogue, the MC Diamond [HFN Dec '22].<

With a selection of cartridges that runs to 90 models, you might wonder what a new range could bring to the Ortofon fold. That impressive figure includes the legendary SPU moving-coils, the once-futuristic but now-familiar Concorde and OM moving-magnet lines, the affordable 2M models, and high-end MCs costing well into the thousands [HFN Mar ’22 & Jun ’25]. This crowded house has now been expanded by the four-strong moving-coil MC X Series, and it will prove a relief to some that the truly exceptional top cartridge, the MC X40 reviewed here, costs £875. Yes: under a grand.

Think of CD players and Philips will be one of the first names to come to mind. This is not necessarily the case when it comes to turntables, even though the company has produced a multitude of models over the years. Its turntable motors could be found in the early Linn LP12 and many other similar designs, yet to most British listeners a complete Philips turntable, like the AF 877 seen here, is something of a novelty.

There is always some kind of surprise in store when reviewing vintage Philips products. Whether a new way of doing things or an extra feature you never knew you needed, Philips always had a knack for this sort of thing. The GA 209S seen here was an attempt to completely automate a high-quality turntable. Introduced in 1973, it entered a market where the grinding gears, clicking cams and greasy levers found in the mechanisms of some BSR and Garrard decks were still very much the norm. The Philips approach was quite different; it made extensive use of electronics to control and sequence the mechanism.

Every keen LP listener should try to experience the joys of a quality direct-drive turntable in their system at least once. Everyone knows the popular favourites, but in the past all the big Japanese names made one or two decks that should still fit the bill.