Ortofon, which turns 100 next year, launched the original Windfeld cartridge nearly a decade ago. Named for cartridge designer Per Windfeld—who had just retired at age 75, after 30 years with the company—that top-of-the-line cartridge cost $3400 at the time of its introduction.
Between 1976 and 2006, Per Windfeld oversaw the development of cartridges from the top to the bottom of Ortofon’s extensive line, including the MC 20, MC Rohmann, and MC Jubilee, as well as Ortofon’s many series of models: MC Super, Kontrapunkt, MC Rondo, and the budget-priced OM and Concorde DJ series. In a recent interview, Windfeld said that he figures he’s developed at least 50 cartridge models. I’m glad he’s still going strong, and has lived to see the remarkable resurgence of vinyl.
The original Windfeld cartridge was the first developed by its namesake’s successor, Leif Johannsen, Ortofon’s manager of R&D. It retained many of the Per Windfeld innovations found in other Ortofons, including Wide Range Damping (WRD): two dampers of different viscosities clamping between them a small, heavy, metal disc. At the time, Ortofon claimed that the WRD assembly produces ideal motor damping throughout and beyond the audioband, to help produce a linear, unusually extended frequency response and outstanding tracking at a vertical tracking force (VTF) of 2.6gm.
The original Windfeld’s low-mass, high-rigidity generator had a boron cantilever and coils wound with Ortofon’s Aucurum wire—gold-plated, 99.9999%-oxygen-free monocrystalline copper—onto a precision armature. The claimed results are high channel separation, lower distortion, and better channel balance. A strong neodymium magnet system combined elements of Per Windfeld’s Kontrapunkt and MC Jubilee designs with a Field Stabilizing Element (FSE) inside the magnet system, to produce a linear magnetic field throughout the armature’s movement. The result, according to Ortofon, was a 4 ohm, 0.3mV-output system with lower levels of intermodulation and dynamic distortion.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2017 من Stereophile.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2017 من Stereophile.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
German kitchens, Japanese amps, and Afropop gems
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EDITOR'S PICK - RECORDING OF THE MONTH
The record business was awash in money and power. Vinyl LPs were still five bucks, and while the pressings could be suspect, the music-buying public still snapped them up en masse.
The Butthole Surfers wipe out
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You're only lonely
AURAL ROBERT - The least surprising story in music today is the inevitable passing of irreplaceable talent. Tenor saxophonist Benny Golson died at age 95 the day I finished this salute to another fallen star, Southern California singer/songwriter John David \"JD\" Souther.
PS Audio Aspen FR5 - LOUDSPEAKER
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Sonus faber Sonetto V G2 - LOUDSPEAKER
Here's a hard truth: A written review of a full-sized speaker any speaker, really-is, at best, semi-useful. We all listen differently, we have different musical tastes, our system electronics are different, and our listening rooms vary a lot. You will gain a general picture of a speaker's capabilities and foibles from John Atkinson's measurements, and I can tell you how the speakers sound to me, in my room. But that's it. You need to hear them for yourself before making a buying decision. The best I can do is tell you how my music brain felt when the speakers were in my house and making music.
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Mobile Fidelity, PrimaLuna, and First Watt redux
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