TIME'S CELEBRATION: ORTOFON FIRST CENTURY ANNIVERSARY ! ! ! ! !

@pbnaudio Peter, I appreciate your opinion and comments. My moniker are actually my initials and birthdate rather than the desirable but way out of my league Mercedes Benz vehicles.

I was referring to the very high end offerings of Ortofon (Exclusives) that are of the 100year celebration exclusive offering. It would be nice to see some specials for say the Cadenza series Bronze $3000) which is some serious dollars (for me anyway).

A 2MRed is indeed FROM $169 dollars in Australia, and would sound like a cheap cart too. That is why I see so many on the 2nd hand market. A base level 2M Black and Quintet Bronze are both $1000.

Ortofon Australia do not list the Century Concord at all. We must live in totally different markets.

I still would have thought that being such an important milestone and being in production for 100 years, the cartridge releases are for the rich and famous, nothing for the common man who still has to pay big coin for a halfway product.

Halfway? Are the top end cartridges 4x the performance of the low end performers? Considering the Cadenza Bronze (at AUD$30000) is a 1/4 the price of the century releases, do they perform 4x better?

Again, the poor guy gets ripped off. (AUD$3000) for a average cart?

I did talk to my local HiFi sales-pusher (he tries to grab my every dollar!) and he suggested the Rega Apheta 2 or up a bit to Aphelion 2. He said he gave away selling Ortofon due to the way THEY want HIM to sell them. He just walked away. Fair enough.

I am a complete novice on cartridges. I can only take peoples advice and read reviews (which are sometimes enlightening). My current understanding is that MC cartridges are very much influenced by the tonearm, pre-amp and so on. It's a steep learning curve.

As a lad in the 1960s the cartridge was welded to the phonograph and you watched it weave side to side as it followed the record groove. It's a whole new world an I am finding out, quickly!