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Danish cartridge specialist Ortofon has announced its Concorde Music range a new, convenient option for tonearms with removable headshells.

First unveiled in 1979, the revolutionary Concorde cartridge was designed to be a plug-and-play pick-up that had a stylus with a lower mass than the VMS cartridges Ortofon was already producing. Now the company is reintroducing the Concorde body shape mirroring the 2M Series offering, but with its own unique characteristics. The new Concorde Music comes with Red, Blue, Bronze, Black and LVB 250 stylus options to suit different sound preferences, specifications and budgets. The same cartridge body and generator system are used throughout the range, for easy stylus upgrades in the future and the 6mV output has been chosen for easy system matching.

Inside, silver-plated oxygen-free copper has been chosen for the quad-coil system together with four Ortofon split pole pins. Concorde Music Red features a high-quality elliptical diamond stylus profile for entry-level performance. Blue boasts a more refined performance, thanks to its nude elliptical diamond. Bronze features a nude fine-line diamond stylus profile, while Black makes use of a high-end nude Shibata stylus profile.

The LVB 250 is the flagship of the series, mounting a nude Shibata diamond on a high-quality boron cantilever. The result, says Ortofon, is: “a sound performance like a more expensive moving-coil design”.

Each cart makes use of a purpose-chosen rubber compound for its suspension system. Ortofon insists installation of the range is effortless: “Simply insert it into an SME-style tonearm headshell socket and lock it into place. There are no screws or fiddly wires, so all that is required is a simple tonearm balance to achieve the desired tracking force. Replacement styli are also available.” Prices are Red £130, Blue £220, Bronze £365, Black £525 and the LVB250 £830.

Available to buy now, you can find out more about the Ortofon Concorde Music range here.