Ortofon's new flagship 'MC Century' announced

[audio bill]

A newly developed Anniversary moving coil cartridge, the Ortofon MC Century coming soon!



The MC Century represents the absolute top of Moving Coil cartridges. This state of the art product is truly exemplary of the highest degree of performance possible in contemporary analogue playback technology.

The MC Century represents numerous Ortofon design elements and ideals:

• The housing and the body of the cartridge are made in Titanium with SLM technique.
• High performance iron-cobalt alloy is applied for some parts of the magnet system.
• The armature damping system provides complete elimination of unwanted resonance.
• Ortofon Replicant 100 diamond, thin and light, with an extraordinarily large contact surface, tracing accuracy unparalleled by any other needle in existence.
• The crystal structure and exceptional hardness of the new Diamond cantilever ensures the best possible interface between the stylus and the armature.
• The combination of Nude Ortofon Replicant 100 diamond on Diamond cantilever provides extremely responsive and transparent sound reproduction.

[jdandy]

Bill.......$8K?

[mulveling]

Wow, from the same company that makes cartridges so physically gorgeous as the A95 and Windfeld Ti -- their new flagship is shaped like the rear end of a municipal garbage truck. Looks even more devolved than the Anna. What happened??

On the inside, they're finally using slightly more exotic magnets than neodymium, which is interesting. And with the diamond cantilever - I'd expect this to list north of $10K-12K. Maybe well north of it (> $15K). At that price, it should look cool too. Also not specified: whether the new diamond cantilever is one-piece with the stylus - like Koetsu - but looks to be 2-piece here?

[audio bill]

With their Anna priced at $9K I'd expect this to be even higher, but there hasn't been any pricing specified that I'm aware of. The Century is being introduced at Munich with demos scheduled as follows, maybe pricing will be announced there. I agree that the diamond cantilever and stylus appears to be a two piece assembly, there's no mention of it being otherwise.

"DEMO of the MC CENTURY will be held twice a day 10th - 13th May at 11:00 and 14:00, at Atrium 4.1 E 107."

[audio bill]

Just heard that Ortofon only plans on making 100 MC Century cartridges and has priced it at 10,000 Euros, which converts to ~$12,000 (only an estimate of its potential US pricing.)

[jdandy]

Bill.......Holy mackerel, $12K is a lot of money for a phono cartridge.

Guess I'll stay with my Ortofon Cadenza Black and Cadenza Blue cartridges.

I'd rather be black and blue than broke. .

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Bill.......Holy mackerel, $12K is a lot of money for a phono cartridge.

Guess I'll stay with my Ortofon Cadenza Black and Cadenza Blue cartridges.

I'd rather be black and blue than broke. .

[audio bill]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Bill.......Holy mackerel, $12K is a lot of money for a phono cartridge.

Guess I'll stay with my Ortofon Cadenza Black and Cadenza Blue cartridges.

I'd rather be black and blue than broke. .

Dan - I agree with you completely about the price, I'm just sharing the info for those that may be interested. I'm still happy with my Cadenza Bronze but am always looking for a potential upgrade.

[mulveling]

Though I was initially off-put by the look, I'm positive it will sound amazing. I've owned the Jubilee, then Windfeld MC, and have heard the A90 and Anna a number of times. Though I moved off to Koetsu due a personal preference towards a more lush/fleshy analog sound, Ortofon has consistently raised their level with each successive model. And with each step, I get a little bit more tempted to jump back into an upper-line Ortofon. I keep around a Cadenza Bronze on my 2nd table, but the upper line models are a lot more finicky about system matching, and can easily get a bit aggressive on top. They don't seem to like the heavy mass Fidelity Research arms. But probably would do quite well on my CA Universal.

Ortofon has a good rebuild program, offering a full rebuild for typically more than 50% off list price (as long as the dollar is strong); that keeps cost per hour a little more reasonable over time (still expensive, though). Question is whether they'll be transitioning this into a production model, or whether the diamond cantilever makes them keep it very limited...but this price strata itself it is largely self-limiting.

[Mister Pig]

What a drool worthy cartridge. But I am a simple country pig of modest means. Far past what a simple swine can afford.

Cheers
Mister Pig