Ortofon - MC Cadenza Black Phono Cartridge

The flagship Cadenza: a nude Shibata on a very thin boron cantilever, with the Wide Range Damping system shared with Ortofon’s far dearer Exclusive cartridges.

Every Cadenza shares a 10.7g body built from stainless steel and aluminium, a 5 ohm internal impedance and a motor system Ortofon describes as using cobalt-iron pole pieces with an improved armature winding process. From there the models diverge on three axes at once — diamond profile, cantilever material and coil wire — which is unusual, and it is why the steps between them are larger than the colour-coded naming suggests.

The Black tops the series with a nude Shibata diamond at r/R 6/50 µm on a very thin boron rod. Ortofon’s reasoning for the material is that the effective mass of the stylus-and-cantilever system is extremely low because boron is exceptionally stiff and even more lightweight than aluminium. Coils are Aucurum, Ortofon’s gold-plated 6NX copper.

What sets it apart within the family is the Wide Range Damping system, which controls high and low frequency damping separately — technology Ortofon also applies to the MC Windfeld, MC A90, MC Anna, Xpression and MC A95, all of which cost considerably more. Ortofon describes the Black as high performing in detail, consistency and sound staging.

Two figures set it apart from its siblings in ways worth planning for. Compliance is 16 µm/mN rather than the 12 of the rest of the range, so it wants a lighter tonearm than the other Cadenzas, and Ortofon does not spell that out. And its published loading guidance is simply greater than 10 ohms, where every other stereo Cadenza gets a bounded range — unhelpfully open-ended on the most expensive cartridge in the family, though it is consistent across all of Ortofon’s documentation, so not a transcription error. In practice you will want to experiment.

Features

• Nude Shibata diamond, r/R 6/50 µm, on a very thin boron cantilever
• Aucurum coil wire — Ortofon’s gold-plated 6NX copper
• Wide Range Damping system, shared with the MC Windfeld, A90, Anna, Xpression and A95
• Frequency range to 60kHz at −3dB; 90 µm tracking ability
• Better than 27dB channel separation and inside 0.8dB channel balance
• 16 µm/mN compliance — higher than the rest of the Cadenza range, so it wants a lighter arm
• 10.7g; 2.3g recommended tracking force

Specifications

• Type: Moving coil stereo cartridge
• Output Voltage: 330 µV (0.33mV) at 1kHz, 5cm/sec
• Channel Balance at 1kHz: Less than 0.8dB
• Channel Separation at 1kHz: Greater than 27dB
• Channel Separation at 15kHz: Greater than 20dB, per Ortofon’s UK distributor. The row is not on Ortofon’s own product page
• Frequency Range: 20Hz – 60,000Hz at −3dB
• Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz, +1.5 / 0dB
• Tracking Ability at 315Hz: 90 µm
• Compliance: 16 µm/mN, dynamic lateral — note this is higher than the 12 µm/mN of every other Cadenza, so this model suits a lighter-mass tonearm than its siblings
• Stylus Type: Nude Shibata diamond
• Stylus Tip Radius: r/R 6/50 µm
• Cantilever: Boron
• Coil Wire: Aucurum — Ortofon’s gold-plated 6NX copper wire
• Wide Range Damping: Fitted. Controls high and low frequency damping separately, using the system Ortofon also applies to the MC Windfeld, MC A90, MC Anna, Xpression and MC A95
• Tracking Force Range: 2.0 – 2.5g
• Recommended Tracking Force: 2.3g
• Tracking Angle: 20°
• Internal Impedance, DC Resistance: 5 Ω
• Recommended Load Impedance: Greater than 10 Ω. This is Ortofon’s published figure and it is consistent across all its documentation, but it is unhelpfully open-ended compared with the bounded 50 to 200 or 50 to 500 ohm windows given for the rest of the range. Expect to experiment
• Cartridge Body Material: Stainless steel and aluminium
• Colour: Black / Black
• Cartridge Weight: 10.7g
• Stylus Replacement: Ortofon states plainly that the styli in moving coil cartridges are non-replaceable, so there is no swap-in stylus for this cartridge. What Ortofon runs instead is an Exchange Service through participating authorised dealers: a worn or damaged MC cartridge — any condition, bought anywhere — is taken in at 25% of the current list price against the purchase of a new Ortofon cartridge of equivalent or better model. Note that is a credit against a new purchase, not a repair price. Ortofon also runs a separate Repair Service for out-of-warranty MC cartridges
• Tonearm Matching: Ortofon publishes no recommended tonearm effective mass for this model. Its general guidance is that an arm of 10g effective mass or below counts as low mass and 11 to 25g as moderate mass, that high mass requires low compliance and vice versa, and that the target is a cartridge and arm system resonance between 7 and 12Hz, with 10Hz recommended
• Stylus Life: Ortofon rates its styli at up to 1000 hours with proper care. 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 publishes no warranty period for its moving coil cartridges on its own site. Ortofon Inc. covers cartridges bought from an authorised US dealer for one year against defects in workmanship and materials, excluding expendable items
• Not Published: Channel separation at 15kHz on the product page; recommended tonearm effective mass
• Note: Ortofon moved from boron to sapphire cantilevers across some models during a boron shortage around 2016. Current Ortofon documentation for the Cadenza Black states boron, which is what we have published, but if you are ever assessing a used or old-stock example it is worth verifying rather than assuming