Inside Track: Making History with Ortofon

Despite its modest size, Denmark has invented some quite important things. From Lego bricks to Carlsberg yeast, modern wind turbine technology to insulin-controlling biotech, this little north European country has punched way above its weight in tech terms in the past couple of centuries. The same goes for hi-fi too – just look at its vibrant speaker manufacturing scene, or the wonder of the premium audio world that is Bang & Olufsen, which pioneered high-quality audio products in exquisite-looking, ergonomic packages. And this is not to forget Ortofon AS, of course, which has been a world leader in phono cartridges for nigh-on eighty years.

Lest we forget, the company launched the first-ever modern moving-coil phono cartridge – called the Mono-A. This was a bigger deal than it might appear in 2025, because back in 1948, in the year that the microgroove LP was launched, it offered a quality of sound that was on another level to other pick-ups. It set the standard for audiophile vinyl reproduction and put the country on the map for precision engineering. No less significant was the Stereo Pick-Up (SPU) stereo cartridge that followed ten years later. Again, this came out in the same year that stereo LP records appeared – and remains an iconic product loved by enthusiasts and collectors even now.

By the late 1970s, Ortofon was practically a household name in Western countries due to its making some of the world’s most popular moving magnet designs – some people reading this may have kicked off their analogue audio journey with an Ortofon FF15E, VMS20E or Concorde cartridge. Certainly, anyone under sixty is likely to have danced to music played by DJs running the latter in their Technics SL-1200 decks. About as ubiquitous as Goodyear or Pirelli car tyres, many ‘normal’, non-audiophiles will have directly or indirectly experienced Ortofon products along their way.

These days, the company goes from strength to strength. It’s been through a busy period of refreshing its product portfolio, and part of this includes a new range of entry-level moving coils. Product Director Peter Wieth Hjordt observes that Ortofon doesn’t chop and change its designs at the drop of a hat, so you know that when something completely new comes out, then it’s a big deal. “The magic happens when we push boundaries, which is what we’ve been doing for several years now”, he explains.

People and Culture

Peter calls himself “deeply technical”, adding that “I have a huge interest in audio electronics, and began my career working in an engineering company twenty-six years ago. All my past knowledge has proved useful in my role at Ortofon.” He’s been a key part of the company in its latest, modern guise, and has seen the adoption of new materials, technologies and manufacturing techniques. Yet he’s fully aware of the company’s position as practically a Danish institution now.

“We just had a forty-year anniversary for one of our employees, and many other people have been with us for a similar amount of time. We’re lucky to have many of our colleagues staying here for so many years. We try our very best to make it a nice place to work. The way people interact with each other here is always very friendly, and people want to do a premium job. We have roughly 150 employees, including our subsidiaries in Germany, the USA and Japan. Within the last five years, we have expanded here in Denmark with a new building, bringing meeting rooms and a new listening room.”

Vinyl’s Enduring Appeal

It’s rare to find people who have been with any hi-fi company for so long, let alone one that’s so niche – because of course people no longer use vinyl as their primary (and/or only) way to play music. Peter muses: “For a while in the nineties, everything seemed to just fade away – it wasn’t slow, things were moving fast forward, as the digital audio revolution took over, and pushed LPs to the sidelines.

But there remained a hardcore of music lovers and audio enthusiasts who were happy with having a music source that wasn’t convenient or cheap. People began to have access to many thousands of pieces of music from their mobile phones – but listening to treasured music at a different quality level can still take you to other places.”

He confesses that Ortofon was at one point expecting the complete demise of vinyl as a music source, and began to think about diversifying into different markets as a result. If you can remember the nineties, then you’ll know it doesn’t sound too far-fetched, because most hi-fi magazines were also predicting the end of LP records, too. “Around the turn of the century, the company was preparing to cease production of cartridges”, Peter confides. “But many thought that when you’re in the right mood, you can sit down and relax with vinyl.

We should have more ‘cosy times’, we should focus on all the good stuff. I think it’s a matter of the quality of our lives. But it’s hard explaining this to people, and getting them in front of good music systems.”

He likens great-sounding hi-fi systems to the culinary arts. “I love making food. I can buy it pre-processed in the local supermarket, and prepare it only by heating it in a microwave oven, but it’s not what I am searching for. I want an experience, a nice time. So sometimes convenience isn’t the main force. I remember by accident tasting a very good champagne one day, and it opened my world to all the quality that you can find there. And I’m not talking about insanely high prices, I am talking about affordable wines that taste really nice!”

Peter tells me about when he invited a visiting friend to hear his hi-fi system at his home. “She said, ‘Oh my God, this gives me goosebumps – it’s just like the artist is right in front of me.’ I think it is magic when people say that, yet what a shame that so many have never had this experience.” He says it’s even more the case with vinyl, because it can deliver a listening experience that is truly exquisite, and yet oddly different to high-end digital audio. It’s something very unique, and isn’t easy to achieve in terms of manufacturing, marketing and setting up.

Good Technology

The great thing is that vinyl records aren’t specifically limited to any specific resolution. They are as good as the original recording, the mastering, the vinyl pressing, and of course, the replay equipment, together. The record groove is tiny, and requires a measuring instrument (i.e. a phono cartridge, tonearm and turntable) of extreme precision to do it justice. It’s been fascinating, Peter observes, to experience records pressed fifty or more years ago just sound better and better as cartridge technology improves over the decades, and they are able to unlock ever more information.

He explains that Ortofon has a number of ongoing research projects, and as they come to fruition, the findings of these are incorporated into the design of whatever cartridge range they are working on at the time. “We feed this research into our new models as they come out”, Peter explains. “For instance, the 2024 Concorde Music range of moving magnets benefited from completely different rubber dampers to their predecessor, plus a completely different generator with higher output and better channel separation and balance. And so it is with our latest MC X series of entry-level moving coils.

These deliver performance that simply wasn’t possible with the old Quintet series due to this ongoing research programme, and the price has not risen – indeed, in some cases it is lower. And of course, this knowledge will make its way into future products. In a year or two from now, we will present another new cartridge, with the aforementioned improvements plus any new discoveries we have made.”

Peter is very proud of the new MC X series. “For this new range, we did many pre-investigations before we started the project. We did a lot of iterative testing for the new magnetic systems, new ways of producing the core, the structure of the cartridge, and the rubber compound for the cantilever damper. All of this got to a maturity level where we could begin product development in earnest, about a year before we launched it earlier this year. It was a case of marrying all the different aspects of the design to one another very carefully.”

He continues: “For example, properly controlling the magnetic field from the front and rear magnet yokes was important, and we wanted to engineer this very precisely. After careful investigation, the silver wiring in the coil configuration achieved what we wanted. We spent years engineering the rubber damper to work optimally. So in general, there are many more things going on with a cartridge that we can see with the naked eye.”

Precision Manufacturing

Peter says that design is one thing, but manufacturing is another. “When making component parts, absolute consistency is essential. It is difficult, but we are used to this and have various ISO certificates, which show all our procedures and processes are auditable and verifiable. Ortofon makes some very sensitive components and micro-mouldings for medical applications too, because we have the knowledge and speciality. So you could say that our micro-tech customers have been checking in to our world of precision micro-engineered components.”

It is remarkable to witness Ortofon cartridges being made, especially the moving coil types, which are all literally made by hand by ultra-skilled and experienced employees who in another life could easily conduct microsurgery on human beings. “Imagine if you have a nail which is 0.6mm by 0.4mm”, Peter explains, “and then you take a wire which is half the dimension of a human hair and then do two layers of winding it on top of each other, and they must be absolutely perfectly aligned. Our operators do this by hand under a microscope, and when you see this process, it feels inhumane to me – they could easily be microsurgeons.”

He explains that moving coil cartridges are the best way we currently have of converting record groove undulations into electrical signals, which are then, of course, amplified and turned into sound by the loudspeakers. Unlike conventional moving magnets, tiny wire coils are fitted to the upper cantilever (at the opposite end to the stylus) – and these move within a fixed magnetic field to generate a signal.

The far lower mass of the coils has less effect on the way that the stylus tracks the groove, which in turn gives more detail and speed than moving magnets can muster. The downside is that the output is much lower, typically one tenth – i.e. 0.4mV instead of 4mV – so you need an additional phono preamplifier. Also, the cartridge has to go back to the manufacturer to get the stylus changed when it finally wears out, although Peter tells me that Ortofon has a good exchange scheme for this.

The X Factor

He explains that Ortofon’s new MC X range is the company’s most affordable product in its moving coil series, and starts with the MC X 10, which is barely more expensive than mid-price moving magnets. It shares everything with the pricier models in the range, apart from its cantilever and stylus type – having an aluminium cantilever and a simple elliptical stylus profile. “The next step up is the MC X20 with its nude elliptical stylus profile, which has a very narrow tip profile.

That’s a lot more detailed and a nice step up from the X10”, Peter says. Whereas the X10’s elliptical stylus is mounted on a titanium shank which is fixed to the cantilever, the X20’s elliptical stylus is bonded directly onto it – hence the term ‘nude’. This brings a surprising improvement in detail and refinement.

“The MC X30, with its nude fine line stylus, presents music in a very melodic and musical way”, says Peter. “It’s more natural, but still with this high level of detail that the X20 has. It’s hard to see how to better it until you hear the strong, powerful yet super incisive sound of the MC X40. We must not forget that we need the deepest bass to be delivered to fully enjoy the music, with energy and control, and this does just that.” This is achieved with a nude Shibata profile stylus and a change from the aluminium cantilever to a boron one, which is lighter and stiffer.

He continues: “Overall, this new range is a step above the outgoing MC Quintet series that it replaces, thanks to its new magnetic system, new core coil system and rubber damping compound for the cantilever. Both channel separation and channel balance are improved too, with just 0.5dB for the latter – and if you spend a good few minutes aligning it properly, then you can make it even better. The set-up time is well spent!”

Ortofon was originally founded in 1918 by Danish engineers Axel Petersen and Arnold Poulsen, whose objective was to bring sound to film. Soon after, they presented the first fully synchronised sound films in the Palace Theatre, Copenhagen. Well over one hundred years later, their company is now a pioneering phono cartridge manufacturer that’s continually recalibrating itself for the modern world. If you think about it, it’s amazing that it even exists – who would have thought that one of the prime exponents of a near-eighty-year-old technology would be going great guns, all this time later?

For more information visit Ortofon