 | This article needs to be updated.(April 2016) |
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| Industry | Audio equipment |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1918 |
| Founder |
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| Headquarters | |
Number of employees | 75 ±25  |
| Website | Official website |
Ortofon is a Danish manufacturer of electronic audio equipment. It is the world's largest producer of magnetic cartridges for phonograph turntables, with 500,000 cartridges sold annually. [1]
The company was founded by engineers Arnold Poulsen and Axel Petersen in 1918. Initially focusing on sound film technology, Ortofon began to diversify into gramophone record playback and cutting equipment towards the end of World War II. The firm pioneered the use of moving coil technology in phonograph equipment; the first cutting head based on this technology was introduced in 1945. [2] Ortofon's first moving coil magnetic cartridge, the AB model, [3] was launched in 1948, and similar variations of that product are still manufactured today due to demand from enthusiasts. [1] 1959 the first Stereo Pick-Up SPU, which aimed at professionals, appeared. [4] This pick-up is produced in different versions until today, for example SPU Meister in 1992, SPU 95th Anniversary in 2015. [4] When Ortofon turned 80 years old, the MC Jubilee was introduced; first time Ortofon used a metal housing manufactured with Metal injection molding. [4] [5] 2000, on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the death of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach, a MC-Series "Kontrapunkt" was presented. The models were named b, a, c, and h, wherein the b has a cantilever made of ruby. [6] For the frame of the housing stainless steel was used. Successor of these pickups became the Cadenza-series in 2009. [7] Regarding the cantilever the Anna Diamond that appeared in 2019 should be mentioned: its cantilever is made of diamond. [8]
The first Moving magnet-pickup M-15 was launched in 1969; here Ortofon used first time the Variable Magnetic Shunt (VMS) generating system which is patented and used until the 1980s too. [9] In 1979 Ortofon presented the DJ-pickup Concorde in a new unusual design. [4] 2007 Ortofon introduced the moving magnet-series 2M. Its design of the housing remembers facets of a diamond; it was created in collaboration with the Dane Moeller Jensen. [4] [10] 2018 the 2nd generation of the Concorde was released. [4]
DJs currently account for three-quarters of Ortofon's cartridge sales, the remainder being sold for audiophile and consumer audio use. [1] Low-cost Ortofon cartridges, such as the OM-5E, are often supplied as standard on budget-priced consumer turntables, including the Pro-Ject Debut range. The Ortofon OM series stylus assemblies are interchangeable, allowing users to easily mount a more expensive stylus on a cheaper cartridge.
The 2020 presented Revox Studiomaster T700 is delivered with an Quintet Bronze MC. [11]
In 2004 the company was taken over by a group of private investors. [12]
Since 2010 there is Ortofon Microtech, that manufactures custom-made high-precision TPE and Technical Rubber components and components for Hearing Aids industry. [13] [14] In the year 2013 Ortofon Microtech consequently got certified for ISO 13485. [4]
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue recording and reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physical deviations of a spiral groove engraved, etched, incised, or impressed into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc, called a "record". To recreate the sound, the surface is similarly rotated while a playback stylus traces the groove and is therefore vibrated by it, very faintly reproducing the recorded sound. In early acoustic phonographs, the stylus vibrated a diaphragm which produced sound waves which were coupled to the open air through a flaring horn, or directly to the listener's ears through stethoscope-type earphones.
A phonograph record, or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near the periphery and ends near the center of the disc. At first, the discs were commonly made from shellac, with earlier records having a fine abrasive filler mixed in. Starting in the 1940s polyvinyl chloride became common, hence the name "vinyl". In the mid-2000s, gradually, records made of any material began to be called vinyl disc records, also known as vinyl records or vinyl for short.
A laser turntable is a phonograph that plays standard LP records using laser beams as the pickup instead of using a stylus as in conventional turntables. Although these turntables use laser pickups, the same as Compact Disc players, the signal remains in the analog realm and is never digitized.
A direct-drive turntable is one of the three main phonograph designs currently being produced. The other styles are the belt-drive turntable and the idler-wheel type. Each name is based upon the type of coupling used between the platter of the turntable and the motor.
A magnetic cartridge, more commonly called a phonograph cartridge or phono cartridge or (colloquially) a pickup, is an electromechanical transducer that is used to play records on a turntable.
The Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) is an analog video disc playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV set using a special stylus and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records.
A record changer or autochanger is a device that plays several phonograph records in sequence without user intervention. Record changers first appeared in the late 1920s, and were common until the 1980s.
Shure Incorporated is an American audio products corporation. It was founded by Sidney N. Shure in Chicago, Illinois, in 1925 as a supplier of radio parts kits. The company became a consumer and professional audio-electronics manufacturer of microphones, wireless microphone systems, phonograph cartridges, discussion systems, mixers, and digital signal processing. The company also manufactures listening products, including headphones, high-end earphones, and personal monitor systems.
ReVox is a brand name, registered by Studer on March 27, 1951, for Swiss audio equipment.
Roksan is a British manufacturer of high fidelity audio products for domestic use, based in Rayleigh, Essex. It is best known for its influential and innovative design for hi-fi equipment, and in particular its Xerxes platform for playing LP records.
Audio-Technica Corporation is a Japanese company that designs and manufactures professional microphones, headphones, turntables, phonographic magnetic cartridges, and other audio equipment.
Stanton Magnetics, doing business as Stanton, is a business unit of inMusic Brands that designs and markets turntables, cartridges, DJ mixers, DJ media players, and DJ controllers.
Elektromesstechnik (EMT) is a manufacturer of phonograph turntables and professional audio equipment, including a well-regarded line of artificial reverberation devices beginning with the EMT 140 plate reverb. The company was founded by Wilhelm Franz.
Luxman is a brand name of Japanese Luxman Corporation (ラックスマン株式会社), a company that manufactures luxury audio components. Luxman produces a variety of high-end audio products which include turntables, amplifiers, receivers, tape decks, CD players and speakers
In the field of audio recording, an aluminum disc is a phonograph record made of bare aluminum, a medium introduced in the late 1920s for making one-off recordings. Although sometimes used for making amateur studio or home recordings or in coin-operated "record-your-voice" booths at fairs and arcades, during the first half of the 1930s bare aluminum discs were primarily used to record radio broadcasts for the private transcription disc archives of performers or sponsors.
Turntable anti-skating is a feature used in phonograph turntables to prevent skating of the tonearm.
SME is a brand name of an English company that produces high end tonearms and turntables, whose name has become synonymous with the industry standard detachable headshell mount.
Goldring is an audio equipment manufacturing company that was established in 1906. In 1906, the Scharf brothers started manufacturing phonographs in Berlin, Germany. The company moved to England in 1933 and continued manufacturing cartridges and turntables. The "Juwel Electro Soundbox" phonograph was their own creation and was released in 1926. The Goldring logo was as indication of quality.
The Tefifon is an audio playback format, developed and manufactured in Germany, that utilizes cartridges loaded with an endlessly looped reel of plastic tape. It is somewhat similar to the later 4-track and 8-track magnetic audio tape cartridges, but with grooves embossed on the tape, like a phonograph record. The grooves were embossed in a helical fashion across the width of the tape, in a manner similar to Dictaphone's Dictabelt format. The grooves are read with a stylus and amplified pickup in the player's transport. A Tefifon cartridge, known as a "Tefi", can hold up to four hours of music; therefore, most releases for the format are usually compilations of popular hits or dance music, operas and operettas. Tefifon players were not sold by television and radio dealers in Germany, but rather sold directly by special sales outlets affiliated with Tefi.
U-Turn Audio is an American audio equipment manufacturer located in Woburn, Massachusetts. The company was established in 2012 by Benjamin Carter, Robert Hertig, and Peter Maltzan. Its primary products are turntables, phono preamps, and loudspeakers.
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