The name Concorde assotiated with cheap and awful sounding DJ moving magnet cartridges made for decades. It has nothing to do with the original Concorde from the late 70s as it was a LOMC Concorde MC200 which they never tried to repead. At least for 30 years all Concorde MM were made for pro market, and till today they are made for pro market. Overprices Concorde cartridges are inferior even compared to the cheapest Grado MI. Concorde made for professional needs of disc-jockeys since the late 80s till today (Concorde Pro, Concorde DJ, Concorde Night Club, Concorde Skratch, Concorde Gold ... just to name a few very popular classic models). For the last 10-15 years all Concorde models were redesigned, but only visually. Instead of the good looking classics like the Concorde Pro (Silver) or Night Club, the Ortofon designers released a bunch of funny looking carts recently that only demonstrate a very bad taste (in my opinion).
No one even remember how a good Concorde MC200 (with micro coil) sounded, the reputation was buried for audiophiles and the market was floaded with those bad souding Concordes and similar OEM carts like Tonar Banana etc.
But the DJ models of various Concorde are the best sellers for the company, mainly because of the usability, no need to set up the cartridge, just plug and play (on Technics SL1200mkII and related). The only problem is that Concordes are killing the records and designed to be used with high tracking force up to 5g! The cheapest Grado DJ100i is killing Concorde it terms of sound, the Grado are much cheaper, superior in every aspect, but they are not popular on the pro market and user must have some knowledge how to set up the cartridge.
Well, this is the story of Concorde since the late 80s till today, audiophiles probably knows nothing about it.
Now they are decided to make 400-500 Euro Concorde Anniversary MM in some awful mirror finishing, but the name Concorde is primary associated with mediorce sound, low compliance for decades!
There are plenty of great MM/MI cartridges at this price from different manufacturers (Grado, Garrott, Nagaoka etc). This item is for collectors, for those who loves limited edition models. They are not gonna make a serial number of Concorde Anniversary.
I don’t know what we have to celebrate here...
release of $14 LOMC cartridge with solid diamond cantilever, maybe?
Technics offered SP-10R turntable for the same price.
No one even remember how a good Concorde MC200 (with micro coil) sounded, the reputation was buried for audiophiles and the market was floaded with those bad souding Concordes and similar OEM carts like Tonar Banana etc.
But the DJ models of various Concorde are the best sellers for the company, mainly because of the usability, no need to set up the cartridge, just plug and play (on Technics SL1200mkII and related). The only problem is that Concordes are killing the records and designed to be used with high tracking force up to 5g! The cheapest Grado DJ100i is killing Concorde it terms of sound, the Grado are much cheaper, superior in every aspect, but they are not popular on the pro market and user must have some knowledge how to set up the cartridge.
Well, this is the story of Concorde since the late 80s till today, audiophiles probably knows nothing about it.
Now they are decided to make 400-500 Euro Concorde Anniversary MM in some awful mirror finishing, but the name Concorde is primary associated with mediorce sound, low compliance for decades!
There are plenty of great MM/MI cartridges at this price from different manufacturers (Grado, Garrott, Nagaoka etc). This item is for collectors, for those who loves limited edition models. They are not gonna make a serial number of Concorde Anniversary.
I don’t know what we have to celebrate here...
release of $14 LOMC cartridge with solid diamond cantilever, maybe?
Technics offered SP-10R turntable for the same price.