Ortofon Cadenza Mono cartridge

Cadenza is Ortofon's latest range. It builds on the famous 'Kontrapunkt' range. This innovative series deserves the best technology available.

Ortofon expands this range with a mono model. The Cadenza Mono cartridge is very similar to the Cadenza Red but optimised for playing monophonic records, originally produced between 1948 and 1968 and some reissues appearing in the '70s up to today. 

Ortofon Cadenza Mono: body

To ward off resonance and vibration, the body of the Cadenza Mono is made of an aluminium and stainless steel alloy. It provides perfect stiffness and enables the weight to remain acceptable.

Threaded inserts replace the unattractive nuts, also making the assembly process easier and allowing optimal mounting to the headshell.

Tests with a load at 250 Ohms and tracking force at 2.5g, as recommended by Ortofon, have yielded excellent results.

Ortofon Cadenza Mono: coil and stylus

It has 6NX gold-plated silver coil wires and neodymium magnets.

The Nude Fine Line stylus is mounted onto a cylindrical alloy cantilever.

Ortofon Cadenza Mono: listening and review

The listening experience is extremely vibrant with this mono cartridge.

With most recordings, we were surprised by the differences compared to our benchmark stereo cartridge.

The quality is far superior to what we were used to in terms of soundstaging and dynamics.

The voices seem to be more defined, but they are also more solid and realistic. In short, the tonal balance is truer and more natural…

If you have a mono LP collection and a turntable with a tonearm that can be fitted with the 10.7 g of this Ortofon Cadenza Mono cartridge, it is certainly made with you in mind as it is one of the most developed and highest performing products currently available.

Back to mono!