Ortofon - Quintet Red MC Phono Cartridge

The entry point to Ortofon’s moving coil range — and the most forgiving of them to partner, thanks to a deliberately low internal impedance.

Every Quintet shares the same 9g body with a threaded aluminium frame, neodymium magnets, the same 15 µm/mN compliance, the same 2.1 to 2.5g tracking force window with 2.3g recommended, the same 20 to 25kHz frequency range and the same minimum load of 20 ohms. Ortofon designs the internal impedance deliberately low so the cartridge is forgiving about phono stage loading, and the practical consequence is that moving up the range never means relearning setup.

Ortofon calls the Quintet Red an all-purpose cartridge delivering open, dynamic sound with a slight touch of warmth, and makes a point of its price-to-performance ratio. It is the only Quintet with a bonded rather than nude elliptical diamond, at r/R 8/18 µm, and at 0.5mV output with a 7 ohm internal impedance it is the easiest of the family to match — Ortofon asks only for a load above 20 ohms rather than a specific value.

That matters more than it sounds. A great many moving coil cartridges are fussy about loading and will sound thin or dull into the wrong impedance. Ortofon’s stated design intent here is the opposite: low internal impedance makes the cartridge less sensitive to load and ensures compatibility with the widest range of preamplifiers and transformers.

Features

• Ortofon’s entry-level moving coil cartridge
• Elliptical diamond, r/R 8/18 µm — the only bonded rather than nude tip in the Quintet range
• 0.5mV output with a low 7 ohm internal impedance, so it is unusually tolerant of phono stage loading
• Neodymium magnets
• Threaded aluminium frame for straightforward top-mounting; 5mm or 7mm screws supplied depending on headshell thickness
• 9g body, 2.3g recommended tracking force
• Load anywhere above 20 ohms

Specifications

• Type: Moving coil stereo cartridge
• Output Voltage: 0.5mV at 1kHz, 5cm/sec
• Channel Balance at 1kHz: Less than 1.5dB
• Channel Separation at 1kHz: Greater than 21dB
• Channel Separation at 15kHz: Greater than 14dB (Ortofon Quintet brochure; this row is not on the current product page)
• Frequency Range: 20Hz – 25,000Hz at −3dB
• Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz, ±2.5dB
• Tracking Ability at 315Hz: 65 µm
• Compliance: 15 µm/mN, dynamic lateral
• Stylus Type: Elliptical — bonded, not nude
• Stylus Tip Radius: r/R 8/18 µm
• Cantilever: Not published by Ortofon — the specification row is empty on both its sites. Ortofon’s UK distributor states aluminium tube
• Coil Wire: Copper, per Ortofon’s Quintet brochure. The figure is absent from the current product page
• Magnets: Neodymium
• Tracking Force Range: 2.1 – 2.5g
• Recommended Tracking Force: 2.3g
• Tracking Angle: 20°
• Internal Impedance, DC Resistance: 7 Ω
• Recommended Load Impedance: Greater than 20 Ω
• Cartridge Body Material: Ortofon contradicts itself on this. The specification tables on both its sites say PC, the Quintet Bronze product prose says a special ABS thermoplastic, Ortofon’s own Quintet brochure says ABS with aluminium, and its UK distributor describes a lightweight ABS body around an aluminium core. We are not going to state one as fact
• Colour: Red
• Cartridge Weight: 9g
• Mounting: Half inch top mount. The aluminium frame has threaded mounting holes and takes the supplied 5mm or 7mm screws depending on headshell thickness
• 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: Cantilever material; coil wire material on the product page; channel separation at 15kHz on the product page; recommended tonearm effective mass
• Note: Trade press has reported the newer MC X series as replacing the Quintet range. Ortofon has published no such statement, and the Quintet models remain listed, priced and in stock on Ortofon’s own sites and in its Exchange Service table. The nearest thing to a manufacturer comment is an Ortofon engineer telling a magazine that the MC X takes performance to another level over the old Quintet range — a performance comparison, not a discontinuation. Third-party retippers will rebuild cartridges like this one, but that sits entirely outside Ortofon’s published position and the result will not carry Ortofon’s specifications