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Recommended Component 2025 – Stereophile
Special Design for Micro Groove Mono Records
Re-experience your old mono records as well as new micro groove mono records and experience the MC Cadenza Mono phono cartridge from Ortofon.
"Tonal qualities of the instruments were nicely textured and displayed," notes Tony Bolton, Hi-Fi World, May 2011. "The Mono seemed unperturbed by musical genre, and tracked perfectly through the most worn and damaged records that I could find."
The MC Cadenza Mono model is made with a Nude Fine Line stylus and a cylindrical aluminum cantilever. The stylus radius is r/R 8/40 µm. The coils are made from 6NX (99.9999 %) pure silver wire. An improved winding process on the armature allows a better channel balance.
For easy use, the pins are connected so you get the same signal from both pairs of connecting pins. Sharing internal build with the Cadenza Red and with optimized adjustments for mono playback, the sound is relaxed, homogeneous and moderate.
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored the MC Cadenza Mono by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2025.
"AH [Alex Halberstadt] mounted the Ortofon Mono on a Well Tempered Lab Amadeus 254 GT record player… and found it offered a notably different presentation from the Miyajima Zero Mono. The Cadenza Mono sounded smoother than the Japanese cartridge, and while it handled pops and scratches with grace, minimizing their impact, it wasn't quite as effective as the Miyajima at making them musically unintrusive."
"'The Ortofon Cadenza Mono creates a seamless, modern, high-resolution sound that worked well with every genre I played,' he wrote, adding that… 'it will capture the musical treasures on your mono LPs with greater fidelity than stereo cartridges, even far more expensive ones.'"
"Presented an Intense Tonal Beauty"
"Best put to use with mid- to late-1960s high-fidelity mono LPs or contemporary reissue pressings of classic releases, it dug deep into the microgrooves of these records, tracked them with steady precision, and presented an intense tonal beauty and a dynamic explosiveness that, once heard, I found hard to do without," raves Garrett Hongo, soundstageultra.com, March 15, 2011.
"Listening to the cartridge was an audio awakening on the order of having heard a piece of music, once all too familiar, as if for the first time. At its price and proper application, the Cadenza Mono delivers excellent sound and very high value. Highly recommended."
The Cadenza Series
Ortofon constantly searches for new technology to be used in its products and push the performance of existing technology. Thus is assured the highest level of performance and quality. The Kontrapunkt models and MC Jubilee became market standards and are among the company's most popular cartridges. Nevertheless Ortofon decided to develop a new cartridge series that is even more ambitious.
By carefully implementing cobalt-iron pole pieces, new improved winding process on the armature, using extruded aluminum housing in the models as well as other changes, Ortofon has been able to reveal new possibilities in performing the analog information. It was also decided to make a more complete range of cartridges, which meant an introduction of a moving coil Cadenza Mono model to support customers who have an extended interest in micro groove mono records.
