Ortofon MC Century Brochure

A century of accuracy in sound MC CENTURY

Ortofon has always been a leading company in the field of sound reproduction.
Founded in Copenhagen in 1918, Ortofon started by creating technology which
served as the basis for adding a soundtrack to the silent movies of the early 1920s.
In 1948, the company developed the first moving coil cartridge, and since then
Ortofon has developed and manufactured more than 300 different cartridges with
our latest being the MC Century.

Today Ortofon is the world leader in cartridges. This is the result of combining
design with technology and the highest level of engineering in the audio industry.
Acoustics, materials technology and micro mechanics are key competences in the
company´s technological prowess. Ortofon has its research and manufacturing
facilities in Denmark: the production of cartridges and components is carried out at
the factory in Nakskov. Production is based on experienced operators with a high
level of craftsmanship. This assures the high uniform quality of Ortofon products.

Ortofon is today recognized among consumers and industry professionals as a
quality brand. Our products concentrate not only on providing the best sound,
but more importantly the faithful and correct reproduction of the recorded sound.
Ortofon’s world-class engineering and manufacturing continually raise the bar
for accurate sound reproduction, with a vast array of products that provide both
exceptionally high performance and value for all listeners – music lovers and high­end audiophiles alike.

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The MC Century represents the absolute top of Moving Coil cartridges. This state of
the art product is truly exemplary of the highest degree of performance possible in
contemporary analogue playback technology.

The MC Century represents numerous Ortofon design elements and ideals:

- The housing and the body of the cartridge are made in Titanium with SLM
technique.

- High performance iron-cobalt alloy is applied for some parts of the magnet
system.

- The armature damping system provides complete elimination of unwanted
resonance.

- Ortofon Replicant 100 diamond, thin and
light, with an extraordinarily large contact
surface, tracing accuracy unparalleled by
any other needle in existence.

- The crystal structure and exceptional
hardness of the new Diamond cantilever
ensures the best possible interface
between the stylus and the armature.

Advancements in technology Magnet system

An engineering feature adding to the damping capability of the MC Century
cartridge is the Selective Laser Melting process in which fine particles of Titanium
are welded together, layer-by-layer, to construct a single piece body devoid of
unnecessary material. Using this technique the density of the body can be precisely
controlled, allowing for extremely high internal damping. The final result provides
absolute freedom from resonances existing in the cartridge body material and
allows for the MC Century to be perfectly matched with an extremely wide array of
different tonearms.

The use of Titanium in the MC Century has provided a further improvement to the
overall rigidity of the structure, the cartridge
weight and its dynamic capability.

Because of the nature of SLM-based
construction, each cartridge body is
cosmetically unique and will show small dimples
or lines under close examination.

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One of the most significant advantages of the
MC Century is Ortofon’s high-efficiency magnet
system originally introduced in the MC Anna
cartridge. The magnet system is based on an
extremely strong and compact neodymium
magnet, which makes the generator system
both compact and lighter. This optimized
geometry combined with choice of materials
like neodymium and iron-cobalt offers an
unprecedented consistency of the flux density within the system’s air gap. Due
to an increase of active material inside of the magnet system, the magnetic field
strength is delivered more uniformly, allowing each coil to sense identical flux
density regardless of its position. Because of this, dynamics and impulse linearity
are preserved to an overwhelming extent.

The use of this optimized magnet system allows for the use of a lightweight,
non-magnetic armature, which also provides noteworthy benefit to the dynamic
capability of the MC Century. The reason for this is that our high-tech polymer­based armature has almost no influence on the magnetic field during movement.
Hence when combined with ultrapure oxygen-free copper coil wire, it delivers
perfect reproduction of the cantilever movements without compromise.