Ortofon 2M Red Cartridge

The Ortofon 2M Red is the entry point to Ortofon's acclaimed 2M moving magnet cartridge series, sitting below the 2M Blue, 2M Bronze, and flagship 2M Black. All four models share the same body — designed in collaboration with Danish industrial design house Møller Jensen Design — but differ in their stylus assemblies, making upgrades within the range a simple stylus swap without removing the cartridge from the headshell.

Tipped Elliptical Stylus

The 2M Red uses a tipped elliptical diamond stylus with r/R radii of 8/18 µm. In this construction, a small diamond chip is bonded to a metal shank on the cantilever. The elliptical contact profile traces a wider area of the record groove than a conical (spherical) tip, retrieving more musical detail while reducing record wear. Stepping up to the 2M Blue replaces this with a nude elliptical diamond — a whole diamond ground to the same profile — which reduces tip mass and improves high-frequency tracking.

Split Pole Pin Engine

Like all 2M cartridges, the Red uses Ortofon's split pole pin generator with copper wire coils. This magnetic circuit design enables the moving magnet motor to deliver a flat frequency response across the audible band. The result is a 20–20,000 Hz response within +3/–1 dB, with output voltage of 5.5 mV at 1 kHz (5 cm/sec) — higher than average for a moving magnet cartridge, ensuring compatibility with virtually any MM phono stage without gain concerns.

Practical Considerations

Recommended tracking force is 1.8 g within a 1.6–2.0 g range, and dynamic lateral compliance of 20 µm/mN suits medium-mass tonearms found on most popular turntables. The recommended load capacitance of 150–300 pF should be factored in when selecting phono stage settings and interconnect cables.

Channel separation is 22 dB at 1 kHz and 15 dB at 15 kHz, with channel balance within 1.5 dB. At just 7.2 g, the 2M Red is light enough for virtually any tonearm and headshell combination.