Ortofon Quintet Black S MC Cartridge

The Quintet Black S in the top model in the Quintet range, and is definitely the star of the range, with performance that is in a different league from pretty much everything else at this price level.

Boring technical stuff first, there's a Nude (one piece) Shibata diamond mounted on a ultra rigid Sapphire cantilever (hence the 'S' in the name) instead of the aluminium tube found elsewhere in this range along with gold plated OFC wire used in the Generator assemblies.

This cartridge is an absolute favourite of mine, it performs so far above its price level and seemingly does so without any obvious trade offs. Sonically it's quite difficult to pigeonhole, as it's balanced and neutral in presentation with frequency extremes that are superbly resolved. There's real heft and definition to the bass, combined with an openness and transparency to the high frequencies, and a mid that has a rightness of tonality that is quite uncommon. Speed and dynamics are quite shockingly good too. What this all means is that it doesn't favour one style of music, it just excels everywhere, so a firm recommendation for a killer cartridge at a fairly accessible price point.

Thanks to the large square body is a doddle to align (although users without easy VTA adjustment may want to note it is quite a tall cartridge, and their width at the rear can cause problems in some cramped headshells - if in doubt please just ask). It might lack the refinement and resolution of the more expensive models this is still a great way to dip your toe into the waters of affordable MC cartridges, sounding warm without losing the immediacy MC cartridges are often praised for.

As MC cartridges do not have removable stylus assemblies Ortofon have an 'exchange' scheme where your old worn/damaged Ortofon MC cartridge is used as a credit against any other Ortofon MC cartridge. Please send us a message and we will calculate the cost to change for you, or visit the distributors website page here