ORTOFON CONCORDE MUSIC RED CARTRIDGE

Looking to produce a more audiophile-oriented Concorde design, Ortofon has released the Music range. Paul Rigby opts for the Red

Would you call this a brave decision by Ortofon? To ally it’s Concorde cartridge design, famous on its own for its place in DJ culture, with one of the most respected and well-established audiophile line of cartridges that the world has ever seen? 

Because that is what the company is doing here. Taking the Concorde cartridge chassis, with that distinctive ‘droop snoot’ configuration, and stuffing it with some – not all – 2M technology from its audiophile cartridge line.

So yes, the Concorde Music cartridges do share the split-pole pin technology of the 2M but the quad-coil generator system used in Concorde Music has a stronger 6mV output, a pretty high output in its class. 

According to Ortofon, “This is great for more casual users who don’t want to tweak volume as they jump between sources on their amplifier or for those who might be using a poorer-quality built-in phono stage with limited gain.”

So you can see who Ortofon is targeting here with this new range. More than that, the Concorde range is a plug and play design, removing basic installation requirements that you see with a basic cartridge on a seperate headshell. 

THE TECH

Based on moving magnet technology, what the Concord Music line presents is an array of five cartridges the: Red, Blue, Bronze, Black and LVB250. You will notice the similarity in terms of the monicker, with the well-known 2M range. The Concord Music range provides an elliptical cantilever except for the LVB205 which provides Boron, various stylii shapes from the Elliptical, Nude Elliptical, Nude Fine Line And Nude Shibata, quad coils, silver-plated coil wiring, a 1.8g tracking force and an 18g overall weight.

Each of these cartridges use the same cartridge body and generator system, so you can upgrade the stylus when you have the funds.

Like any Concord variant out there, the Music series integrates the cartridge with the head shell so the entire unit fits to any arm that sports a SME-type fitting. 

Five years ago, back in 2019, I reviewed the Pick-IT S2, a cartridge made for Pro-Ject by Ortofon. That was Ortofon’s earlier attempt to drag the DJ-centric Concorde model into the audiophile world. That model had its pros and its cons but didn’t quite make it – at least in my opinion – in pure sonic terms. Question is, will the Concorde Music cartridge fare any better? Let’s see.

SOUND QUALITY

To test the Red I grabbed an original copy of Yes’ rather forgotten LP, Tormato (Atlantic) from 1978 and played the track Future Times. This is a high-energy rock outing, highly complex (surprise, eh?) and full of varying instruments: drums, bass, electric guitar, synths and the kitchen sink. Enough to become messy if any one component cannot cope, put it that way. Including the cartridge, of course. 

WITH THE LP5x

To begin the tests, I grabbed an unmodified Audio-Technica LP5x which I rate as a good all-rounder for around £300-£400, depending where you shop and I initially compared the Concorde Music Red with the Audio-Technica VM95E, a cartridge I also rate highly for the price of around £45, again, depending where you shop. The 95E is a balanced and detailed cartridge for the price. 

Swopping the cartridge and, of course, headshell for the Concorde Music Red I felt that the soundstage expanded left and right. The presentation was rather grand, even epic in places. 

What the Music Red did here was to corral every frequency and every piece of detail within those frequencies and push them all, evenly, towards the front of the mix. This does means that music does sound a little obvious and flat, lacking in nuance, imagery and depth but it also means that nothing is hidden. Even subtle, easily missed detail elements are available to the ear. Ideal for less than insightful HiFi systems. The Music Red does all the legwork in that case. 

When all of these frequencies are pushed forward towards the listener, the Music Red takes things just a little far because there is a slight midrange and treble emphasis here. Bass sounds completely impactful, strong and meaty though. 

Turning to the original 2M Red, also from Ortofon, the basic cartridge that attaches to a separate headshell, the Concorde – in comparison to that cartridge – did sound like it was forcing the midrange a little, pushing it forward. Midrange was a little obvious, when faced with the 2M Red, whereas there was more tonal realism from the basic 2M Red. The 2M Red provided a richer and more rounded midband. Music was restrained and relaxed via the 2M Red. In comparison, the Music Red sounded pumped, ready for action, full of adrenaline.

WITH THE FLUANCE RT83

I then had a thought and brought out my Fluance RT83 and attached the Music Red to that. The RT83 has natural bass emphasis due to its dense plinth. This platform suited the output of the Concorde, allowing the bass emphasis to match that slight midrange and treble emphasis, giving an overall party atmosphere to the sound and suiting the rock output. In fact, a Fluance and Concorde Music Red provided a rocking, all-powerful, amp-turned-up-to-11 character. 

Again though, changing the Concorde Red for the 2M Red, I found, even with the Fluance, that the 2M Red provided a superior tonal balance, a richer and more complex midrange output with a more effective treatment of fragile and subtle detail around the upper minds and treble. There was more air and space around the soundstage from the 2M Red.

This overall impression was confirmed while playing the rather lovely album from Jeri Southern, an original pressing of At The Crescendo (1960), a live outing via Capitol and the track, Thought of You Last Night that principally featured Southern’s voice, piano and viola. The Music Red just added enough emphasis to tighten the smooth Southern delivery.

On the other hand, dropping The Who album, Who Are You (Classic Records) which is naturally full of fire and bombast, the Music Red egged on the rock, added emphasis to the power and glory. It’s the sort of presentation that might force you out of your seat to dance, rather indelicately, around the room. The Music Red was like a cartridge compere, a HiFi host, an MM…MC, packed with energy and enthusiasm. Desperate to involve you in the music itself. 

CONCLUSION

The Concorde Music Red can be a wish come true. A cartridge that is already installed into a headshell which means you don’t have to worry about that potentially complicated installation step, never mind that easy-to-install SME-type fixing. Also add the simple, just-change-the-stylus, upgrade path and 2-channel home HiFi systems have never had such a simple plug-and-play cartridge operation. 

Sonically, however, if you want subtlety, delicacy, finesse and fragility then look elsewhere, such as Ortofon’s own competing 2M Red for example. The Music Red retains the DJ-esque sound envelope of other Concorde designs and I am reminded once more of my earlier Pick-IT S2 review that also promised an audiophile performance yet just fell short, just a tad. It’s a DJ personality that this chassis just cannot escape from but that’s ok as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into. There is still plenty to like here but it’s not for everyone.

So who is it for then? Well, if you want all your sonic detail served up on a silver platter, front and centre, if you want all of the bass dumped in your lap and if you want to party till you faint? Then check out the Concorde Music Red.

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ORTOFON CONCORDE MUSIC RED 

Price: £129

Website: www.henleyaudio.co.uk

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GOOD: easy to install, big bass performance, no hidden detail here, great for out and out rockers

BAD: midrange emphasis, flat soundstage, unbalanced presentation, forward presentation 

RATING: 7