Ortofon switches from boron to sapphire cantilevers

[Mister Pig]

There are some highly regarded small Japanese companies using aluminum for cantilevers still. Companies like Miyajima and My Sonic Labs. They use aluminum alloys that have been specially treated. Audio Technica also uses duraluminum for the 33EV. Ortofon uses tapered aluminum alloy in the Cadenza Bronze. There are a few examples of aluminum alloy being used in high performance cartridges.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[ETI_5000]

Ortofon have actually been using sapphire for a long time. Their MC 5000 cartridge used a sapphire cantilever in the early-1990’s, so it’s not a new thing. They’ve just started using it again, possibly because boron rods for cantilevers are now harder (or impossible?) to find.

 

[muovimies]

Ortofon have actually been using sapphire for a long time. Their MC 5000 cartridge used a sapphire cantilever in the early-1990’s, so it’s not a new thing. They’ve just started using it again, possibly because boron rods for cantilevers are now harder (or impossible?) to find.

It's not like they ever really stopped using it, for example some cartridges in the Kontrapunkt line had sapphire cantilevers, and currently Cadenza Blue has a ruby cantilever. Bronze on the other hand has what's look to be anonized, tapered aluminum cantilever, while the Black has boron and Red a regular aluminum cantilever. I think at the moment they are reserving the stock they have (or the limited supply they still can get their hands on) on the top models, hopefully a new supplier for boron cantilevers will emerge eventually.

I like that they admit straight out this is not some kind of 'upgrade', but that boron is in their opinion the best material currently around and they are substituting it for something else in the Quintet Black because they feel they must. Think what you want about Ortofon, their cartridges, or their pricing but my experience with them is they are very straightforward and no-bs to deal with. They could've just done an 'upgraded' model and spin it so this new cartridge is somehow better than the original version with the boron cantilever.