Ortofon's new cartridge king is £7250 MC Anna Diamond

Ortofon's new cartridge king is the £7250 MC Anna Diamond

Last year, in celebration of its 100th birthday, Ortofon released its most technological (and expensive) moving coil cartridge ever, the £8500 MC Century, of which 100 pieces were available. The Danish brand’s technical developments haven’t been restricted to a limited-edition legacy, though, instead used to create an all-new flagship, the MC Anna Diamond.

The permanent new addition takes the original design of Ortofon’s MC Anna, which has until now sat at the top of the brand’s top-tier Exclusive Series range since 2012, but uses a diamond cantilever in combination with an Ortofon Replicant 100 diamond stylus.

Ortofon has taken considerable measures to control consistency and reduce resonance in the name of utmost transparency. For example, the stylus and cantilever connect within a newly-improved generator system that has an iron-cobalt alloy for allegedly greater control. Multiple layers of titanium are welded together to create a single-piece housing that Ortofon says allows for precise density control and high internal damping, too.

Ortofon is also wary of the MC Anna Diamond’s use with a variety of tonearms and turntables, ensuring it has an output impedance of 6 ohms and a low-to-medium output voltage of 0.2m volts.

No stranger to dedicating products to high-end audio figures, Ortofon has created MC Anna Diamond as a tribute to Anna Netrebko, a Russian operatic soprano renowned for her work over the past two decades.

Supplied in a luxury Japanese wood case made with a user booklet and maintenance kit, the MC Anna Diamond is available in the UK from June, priced £7250.

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Becky Roberts

Becky is the managing editor of What Hi-Fi? and, since her recent move to Melbourne, also the editor of Australian Hi-Fi magazine. During her 10 years in the hi-fi industry, she has been fortunate enough to travel the world to report on the biggest and most exciting brands in hi-fi and consumer tech (and has had the jetlag and hangovers to remember them by). In her spare time, Becky can often be found running, watching Liverpool FC and horror movies, and hunting for gluten-free cake.