Brand · 6 products · Audio
Ortofon
Is Ortofon worth buying?
Ortofon earned a buy verdict on 2 of the 6 Ortofon products we compared (33%), well below the 50% average across every brand on the site. 1 of them won its comparison outright: Ortofon Stylus Brush, Fiber. 2 are an "it depends": right for a specific buyer, not for everyone. We would skip 2: Ortofon 2M Red and Ortofon LH-9000.
Verdicts synthesize independent testing and long-term owner reports; we do not run a lab and never take review units. Each product below links to the comparison it was judged in. How we review.
Buy it 2 products
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The Best Turntable Stylus Cleaners: 4 Compared (and One to Skip) · Audio
Ortofon Stylus Brush, FiberWon the comparison
The dry fibre brush a major cartridge maker tells its own customers to use, with the technique spelled out in its own FAQ.
Best for: Anyone who wants the safest routine cleaning method, and anyone whose cartridge maker says dry brush only.
$ · budget
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The Best Turntable Cartridges: 4 Compared (and One to Skip) · Audio & Headphones
Ortofon 2M BlueRunner-up
A nude elliptical stylus on a proven moving magnet body, and it drops straight onto the 2M Red your turntable probably shipped with.
Best for: Listeners past the experimental stage who have a decent arm, a clean collection and the patience to align properly.
$$ · mid-range
It depends 2 products
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The Best Turntable Headshells: 4 Compared (and One to Skip) · Audio
Ortofon LH-2000
A 15.5 g solid aluminium shell with a generous slot range, which is exactly right for a stiff low-compliance cartridge and exactly wrong for a springy one.
Best for: A low-compliance moving coil on a low or medium effective mass arm that needs mass added to reach the resonance window.
$$ · mid-range
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The Best Turntable Mats: 4 Compared (and One to Skip) · Audio
Ortofon Slipmat, Scratch
A proper DJ slipmat, sold in pairs, designed to do the exact opposite of what a hi-fi mat should do.
Best for: Anyone cueing records by hand on a direct-drive deck, and nobody else.
$ · budget
Skip it 2 products
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The Best Turntable Cartridges: 4 Compared (and One to Skip) · Audio & Headphones
Ortofon 2M Red
A perfectly decent cartridge sold as an upgrade to people who already have it fitted to their turntable.
Why we skip it: Its elliptical stylus is the entry profile of the 2M ladder, below the Blue's nude elliptical, and can sound congested on dense inner grooves
$ · budget
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The Best Turntable Headshells: 4 Compared (and One to Skip) · Audio
Ortofon LH-9000
Ortofon's flagship shell asks the highest price here for a magnesium and carbon fiber body whose resonance claim carries no published measurement, and it is the heaviest of the four.
Why we skip it: Ortofon describes it as made with carbon fiber resin for the elimination of unwanted resonances but publishes no measurement to support that.
$$$ · premium
Ortofon in our categories: Audio (6)