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Ortofon OM 5E

Spellbinder

Spellbinder

My Spine Is The Bassline
I just had a bit of Karma from a member of the Steve Hoffman forums. He sent me an Ortofon OM 5E cart. Now i know this is not a high-end Ortofon cart, but it sure sounds sweet on my Dual 1219. I like the sound a lot. I might make the move to the Ortofon 2M RED next.

Thoughts on Ortofon OM 5E? And will the Ortofon 2M RED be a good match with my Dual?
 
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An OM5E came mounted on my Debut III, and quite frankly, I love it! I was thinking about upgrading it, but I decided that it works, and doesn't need to be fixed. When the time comes to replace the stylus, I plan on upgrading it to an OEM fine line stylus, funds permitting.

It's excellent to see such a quality cartridge exists at such an affordable price! Enjoy! :D
 
Listening again before I go to work. Really nice, tight bass. Excellent overall sound.

As far as replacement stylus (since this stylus has an unknown amount of hours on it), I'm thinking of an upgrade myself. Not sure if I should upgrade the stylus or just go ahead and get the 2M Red.
 
Spellbinder said:
I just had a bit of Karma from a member of the Steve Hoffman forums. He sent me an Ortofon OM 5E cart. Now i know this is not a high-end Ortofon cart, but it sure sounds sweet on my Dual 1219. I like the sound a lot. I might make the move to the Ortofon 2M RED next.

Thoughts on Ortofon OM 5E? And will the Ortofon 2M RED be a good match with my Dual?
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Have you considered an Ortofon OM 20 or OM 30 stylus upgrade for the OM5E cartridge instead?:scratch2:

OM 20
http://www.lpgear.com/product/ORS020.html

OM 30
http://www.lpgear.com/product/ORS030.html
 
I wasn't sure if the stylus was specifically designed for each cart. If the 20 will work well with the OM 5 cart, I might just try that.
 
The bodies are the same. Just need to swap the stylus and set the weight. The OM5 is around 2 grams if I remember correctly, while the others are 1.5. But double check my numbers!
 
I may sound like a broken record (pun intended) but an OM cart w/ProS, 10 & 30 styluses are all most of us would ever need. Could play all of your mono, thrift store & fine LPs
 
So the cart itself is an Ortofon OM. What gives it the number designation is whatever stylus you happen to have it paired with?
 
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I think there are some minor differences in some of the OM carts :dunno:. Regardless, sticking with the OM body makes sense with a Dual arm.
 
What I have read over the years is that the OM-5E body & the OM-10-40 body's are different. The 5E can use the upper end stylus, but to get the total sonic benefit you need to have a 10-40 body. I have used them all except the 40. The 5E to the OM-20 are similar in sound to me. Going to the OM-30 was a big jump in clarity, air & soundstage, plus it had a little higher output on my TT.
 
The OM10/OM20/OM30 styluses will fit both the OM, and Super OM carts.

If you buy the OM5E cart, you're getting the OM cart, with the 5E stylus, while if you buy the OM10/OM20/OM30 cart, you're getting the Super OM cart (which has better specs than the OM cart) along with the OM10/OM20/OM30 styluses.

IIRC, the OM5E stylus and the OM10 stylus are elliptical, the OM20 stylus is a nude elliptical, and the OM30 is a fine line. Not too sure what the OM40 is, though.

As far as I know, the optimum VTF for the OM5E is 1.75 to 1.8 Gr.
 
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mayidunk said:
The OM10/OM20/OM30 styluses will fit both the OM, and Super OM carts.

If you buy the OM5E cart, you're getting the OM cart, with the 5E stylus, while if you buy the OM10/OM20/OM30 cart, you're getting the Super OM cart (which has better specs than the OM cart) along with the OM10/OM20/OM30 styluses.

IIRC, the OM5E stylus and the OM10 stylus are elliptical, the OM20 stylus is a nude elliptical, and the OM30 is a fine line. Not too sure what the OM40 is, though.

As far as I know, the optimum VTF for the OM5E is 1.75 to 1.8 Gr.
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The OM40 stylus is a Fritz Gyger 70 profile. It's the closest thing I've heard to a moving coil setup in my system. The OM30 is beautiful sounding but sounds very slightly less detailed in the top end by comparison. The Ortofon Red, etc. sound very different than the OM series. If you generally like the sound of what you have, don't change to the other series; you'll be disappointed.
 
mayidunk said:
(...) while if you buy the OM10/OM20/OM30 cart, you're getting the Super OM cart (which has better specs than the OM cart) (...)
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That seems a rather odd way of putting it. Thing is, the OM10/20/30/40Super simply are the successors of the older OM10/20/30/40, while the OM5E wasn't changed. Neither were some other models that are still available on some markets like the OMB10 and OMB20 and all OMPs. Whether the Super versions really are better is very debatable, though - mainly due to the increased inductance.

Well, and the needle 40 once used to be a vdHII, but became a Gyger70, when the SuperOMs tooks over. At the same time Ortofon also decreased the compliance of some of the needle versions - probably to suit the trend for arms on the light side of medium heavy.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
Bigerik said:
But the differences are not THAT big between the two.
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I can not comment on the difference in sound between the two series.

My is the Ortofon OM 20 upgraded with an Ortofon OM 30 stylus.

I have not done a side by side comparison of the Ortofon OM20/30 with an Ortofon Super OM 20/30 set up.

It is very doubtful that I would be able to discern the difference even if I tried! :scratch2: :music:
 
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