Ortofon | SKU: NEW-ORMCQSBL | Barcode: 5705796271218

Ortofon MC Quintet S Black Phono Cartridge

Ortofon's Quintet S Black is the best example of Quintet's overall excellence. The Quintet Black is graced with a Nude Shibata diamond, considered one of the best available.

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Editors' Choice Award 2024 – The Absolute Sound Magazine

$1,149.99

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New

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What You Need to Know

The Best Cartridge in the Quintet Series

The Ortofon MC Quintet Black S is the flagship of the Quintet family. It combines Ortofon’s most advanced moving coil technology in the series with a Nude Shibata diamond stylus mounted on a sapphire cantilever. The result is exceptional detail, outstanding tracking, and a smooth, natural sound.

If you’re looking for reference-quality moving coil performance without stepping into Ortofon’s premium Cadenza models, the Quintet Black S is an outstanding choice.

Shibata Stylus Brings Out the Finest Details

The Nude Shibata stylus has a long, narrow contact profile that follows the record groove with remarkable accuracy.

You’ll hear cleaner high frequencies, greater instrument separation, and more of the subtle details that make a performance sound real. Its larger contact area also helps reduce distortion and record wear.

Sapphire Cantilever for Faster Response

The stylus is mounted on a sapphire cantilever, a material prized for being both light and extremely rigid.

Because it flexes very little, it responds quickly to the tiny movements in the record groove. The result is sharper transients, tighter bass, and a wider, more stable soundstage.

Designed for High-Performance Analog Systems

The Quintet Black S is made for quality turntables paired with a moving coil phono preamp or step-up transformer. With careful setup, it delivers the speed, openness, and realism that make moving coil cartridges so rewarding.

Building Your System

Turntables – Best matched with high-quality turntables and precision tonearms.
Phono Preamp – Requires a moving coil (MC) phono input or compatible step-up transformer.
Setup – Accurate alignment and tracking force help the cartridge perform at its best.

Features & Specifications

Nude Shibata Diamond Stylus

Tracks the groove with exceptional precision for maximum detail and low distortion.

Sapphire Cantilever

Lightweight and highly rigid for fast response and excellent tracking.

Low-Mass Moving Coil Generator

Delivers outstanding clarity, dynamics, and stereo imaging.

Rigid ABS/Aluminum Body

Provides a stable platform that helps control unwanted vibration.

Specifications

Type: Moving Coil (MC)
Stylus: Nude Shibata Diamond
Cantilever: Sapphire
Output: 0.3mV
Internal Impedance: 5Ω
Mounting: Standard ½-inch

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the Quintet Black S different from the Quintet Black?

The Quintet Black S upgrades to a sapphire cantilever, which improves tracking, detail retrieval, and overall refinement while retaining the Nude Shibata stylus.

Do I need a moving coil phono preamp?

Yes. The Quintet Black S requires an MC phono stage or a compatible step-up transformer.

Who is this cartridge for?

It’s ideal for listeners who want top-tier moving coil performance and are building a serious analog system without moving into Ortofon’s flagship cartridge lines.

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Editors' Choice Award 2024 – The Absolute Sound Magazine

"The Quintet Series comprises five low-to-mid-priced moving-coil cartridges that replaces the aging Rondo Series of mc’s. At the top rung is the 0.3mV Quintet Black, which is given the royal treatment with neodymium magnets, a nude Shibata stylus, and a boron cantilever. Sonically, the Quintet Black displays even neutrality across the tonal spectrum with glimmers of midrange warmth. It has both a light touch and control. Low-level information is reproduced with great precision."

- The Absolute Sound magazine, December 2024

"The Ortofon Quintet Black S is a fantastic cartridge and now that I’ve been spoiled by its smooth, detailed, and naturally extended moving coil sound, I don’t think I can go back to budget MMs. With the Ortofon, I always feel like I’m hearing as much of the music as possible considering its price point and the rest of my system. It reveals the best in recordings excellent and mediocre alike."

"The Ortofon Quintet Black S is an exceptional cartridge that I highly recommend to those seeking excellent moving coil performance in this price range. Over time it retrieved more details from my records than I previously thought possible on my system, despite the slightly less than perfect VTA/SRA. In addition to that, it plays mono records easily and without distortion, making unnecessary a designated mono cartridge. The Quintet Black S is an outstanding value, and because of that, I will buy it and for the foreseeable future happily keep it in my system."

- Malachi Lui, analogplanet.com, June 17, 2019

"The first thing that strikes you is the bottom end. More presence, more body, more depth, but still lovely and tight."

"Transients are lightning fast, but I expected this with the stiff Sapphire rod, Shibata tip and relatively low output/lighter coils… But there's still a warmth & body to what is a very expansive, articulate and open presentation."

"I've been rifling through my collection to see what next to throw at it - this is proving to be a most enjoyable task. Still early days, but this is rapidly heading towards the top of my favorite cartridges list."

- DaveyW, audiokarma.org, June 25, 2018

"The Quintet Black is still mesmerising with its lushness and spaciousness - I can't go back. Its winning me over. I've just listened to the Pedlars, Holst Planets and Mary Coughlan - many superlatives!"

- minio, vinylengine.com, June 11, 2015

"If you are looking for a MC cartridge that unravels large amounts of transient, harmonic and spatial detail without being overly analytical and one that is "fast" without moving so fast it misses the textures, then the Ortofon Quintet is a great good choice to consider. It's especially neutral tonally, with a rich but not overly rich midrange component – contrary to the bad rap MC cartridges get in some quarters for being 'thin and overly analytical'. The Quintet is neither."

"The Ortofon Quintet is an all around great performer for all musical genres. $999 is not chump change but if that's your budget and your phono preamp can do it justice and your tone arm's VTA/SRA is adjustable to optimize the Shibata stylus, the Quintet is recommended without reservation."

- Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound magazine, July 11, 2014

"Detail is superb, and some old recordings reveal hidden qualities that other cartridges pass over. It also tracks superbly, set just shy of the recommended 2.3g. All in all a superb cartridge that will suit any kind of music, but needs to be fitted to a decent deck/arm combi, and fed through a decent preamp to do it justice (and justify the higher cost - in my case higher than the turntable it's playing in at present)."

- VJT1952, vinylengine.com

"At the end of the day perhaps the greatest tribute I can pay the Quintet Black is that I haven’t felt the urge to quickly return to one of my pricey reference cartridges. I don’t need to tell you that for this analog junkie, that’s really saying something."

- Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound magazine, July 11, 2014

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Ortofon MC Quintet S Black Phono Cartridge

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