Ortofon - 2M Black LVB 250 MM Cartridge Mounted on SH-4 Headshell

The 2M Black LVB 250 already bolted to an SH-4 headshell — boron cantilever, Nano Tube suspension, ready to clip onto an S-shaped arm.

The SH-4 is Ortofon’s workhorse universal headshell, made from anodised aluminium with gold-plated terminal pins and a long finger lift. It weighs 9.2g bare, and Ortofon publishes the combined cartridge-and-headshell weight for every premounted 2M at 16.7g — which is the number to check against your arm’s counterweight range before ordering.

LVB 250 stands for Ludwig van Beethoven 250, and Ortofon released this cartridge to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth in December 2020. Against the standard 2M Black three things change: the cantilever becomes boron rather than aluminium, the suspension becomes Ortofon’s Nano Tube system using multi-wall carbon nanotubes as a nano filler, and the recommended tracking force rises slightly to 1.6g as a stiffer cantilever requires.

What does not change is the diamond or the engine. The stylus is the same nude Shibata at the same r/R 6/50 µm — the tip is not upgraded, its carrier is — and the generator is the same quad-coil arrangement with silver-plated OFC wire. Published channel separation rises from 26 to 27dB.

One thing worth being straight about, because a lot of retail copy is not: Ortofon markets premounted cartridges purely on convenience. It never claims the cartridge arrives aligned, never quotes a factory overhang figure, and never names an alignment geometry. What you are buying is the fiddly part already done — the cartridge bolted to the headshell with the leadwires connected, which is the step that costs most people their patience and occasionally a cantilever. You still set overhang, tracking force and anti-skate yourself.

Features

• Ortofon 2M Black LVB 250 premounted on an SH-4 headshell, leadwires connected
• Bayonet / SME fitting for S-shaped tonearms with a universal mount
• Combined weight 16.7g
• Boron cantilever — the only one in the 2M range
• Nano Tube suspension using multi-wall carbon nanotubes as a nano filler
• Nude Shibata diamond, r/R 6/50 µm
• 27dB channel separation; recommended tracking force 1.6g

Specifications

• Type: Moving magnet stereo cartridge premounted on an Ortofon SH-4 headshell
• Mounting: Bayonet / SME. Fits S-shaped tonearms with a universal mount — the standard fitting on Technics SL-1200-style decks and most classic Japanese S-arms
• Combined Weight: 16.7g cartridge and headshell
• Headshell: Ortofon SH-4, anodised aluminium, gold-plated terminal pins, long finger lift. 9.2g on its own
• Output Voltage: 5mV at 1kHz, 5cm/sec
• Channel Balance at 1kHz: 1dB
• Channel Separation at 1kHz: 27dB
• Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz, +2 / −1dB per Ortofon’s cartridge page. See note below
• Tracking Ability at 315Hz: 80 µm
• Compliance: 22 µm/mN, dynamic lateral
• Stylus Type: Nude Shibata on a boron cantilever
• Stylus Tip Radius: r/R 6/50 µm
• Cantilever: Boron
• Suspension: Ortofon’s Nano Tube system — a rubber compound using multi-wall carbon nanotubes as a highly efficient nano filler
• Tracking Force Range: 1.5 – 1.7g (15 – 17mN)
• Recommended Tracking Force: 1.6g (16mN)
• Internal Impedance, DC Resistance: 1.2k Ω
• Internal Inductance: 630mH
• Recommended Load Resistance: 47k Ω
• Recommended Load Capacitance: 150 – 300pF
• Coil System: Quad coils with split pole pins and silver-plated OFC coil wire — unchanged from the 2M Black
• Replacement Stylus: Stylus 2M Black LVB 250
• Edition: Ortofon publishes no production quantity and does not describe this as a limited edition on its product page. It has remained a catalogue product since 2020
• Stylus Life: Ortofon rates its styli at up to 1000 hours with proper care, and reckons DJ use at about 500 hours at most. This is a general figure across the range rather than a per-model specification
• Origin: Ortofon A/S of Nakskov, Denmark. Ortofon states that all its cartridges are designed and crafted in Denmark
• Warranty: Ortofon Inc. covers products bought from an authorised US dealer for one year against defects in workmanship and materials, and excludes expendable items — which on any normal reading excludes the stylus. Ortofon’s own webshop terms quote two years instead; a US dealer purchase falls under the one-year terms
• Not Published: The alignment geometry, if any, set at the factory — Ortofon never names Baerwald, Löfgren, Stevenson or any other, and never states the cartridge is pre-aligned; any factory overhang figure; azimuth adjustability of the SH-4; the leadwire model or conductor material; any production quantity or edition number
• Note: Ortofon publishes contradictory frequency response figures for the LVB 250: the cartridge page gives +2 / −1dB while the matching stylus page gives +2 / −0dB. Since the stylus assembly carries the cantilever and suspension, these cannot both be right — and taken literally the cartridge-page figure would make the flagship measure worse than the standard 2M Black beneath it. We have reproduced the cartridge page figure and flagged the conflict rather than picking the flattering one