The Concorde 5E sits in Ortofon's revitalised Concorde 5 series, a 2025 update to the iconic integrated DJ cartridge that has been part of the Ortofon catalogue since the original Concorde MkI launched in the late 1970s. Positioned just below the premium Concorde Music range, the 5 series combines the trusted performance and form factor of the original design with current generator technology, and is offered in two stylus options: the spherical 5S and the elliptical 5E.
Concorde Cartridge Format
The Concorde format integrates the cartridge body and headshell into a single bayonet-mount assembly that drops directly onto an SME-style S-shaped tonearm. There are no four-pin headshell wires to align, no overhang to dial in, and no cantilever to expose during installation; the cartridge fits, locks, and tracks in seconds. This makes the Concorde a popular choice for DJs and for hi-fi listeners who want a straightforward replacement cartridge without the setup work usually involved.
Elliptical Stylus
The 5E uses an elliptical diamond stylus with a r/R 8/18 um tip radius. The narrow front-to-back contact dimension allows the diamond to trace high-frequency groove modulations more accurately than a spherical profile, reducing distortion on inner-groove passages and revealing finer detail and stereo image cues. Channel separation is rated at greater than 22 dB at 1 kHz, slightly higher than the spherical 5S. Tracking force is set at 1.8 g.
Generator and Construction
The cartridge is a moving magnet design with a quad-coil generator, an aluminium cantilever and OFC (oxygen-free copper) coil wire. Output is rated at 4 mV, channel balance is within 2 dB at 1 kHz, and frequency response covers 20 Hz to 20 kHz within +/- 3 dB. Dynamic lateral compliance is 20 um/mN. The complete assembly weighs 18 g and is intended to drive any standard MM phono input with 47 kOhm load resistance and 200 to 500 pF load capacitance.
Upgrade Path
The Concorde 5 body accepts the Stylus 5S, 5E, 10, 20, 30 and 40 replacement assemblies. A buyer can later swap to a higher-tier Concorde stylus profile without replacing the cartridge body itself, providing a low-cost route to performance upgrades as a system or collection grows.
