Ortophon OM pickup with Dreher + Kauf stylus

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I was given an Ortophon OM pickup cartridge body. Not wanting to risk big money, I ordered a cheap Dreher & Kauf elliptical stylus on the evil bay. I mounted the cartridge in an Audio Technica head-shell that was also to hand, thinking that maybe it was not a good compliance match. VTA and alignment all checked out fine and I set the VTF at 1.5g and the anti-skate to match. The arm is a JVC UA-5045 mounted to a JVC QL7 direct drive turntable.

I didn't expect much. My pickup cartridge of choice is either a Shure M97xE or an Audio Technica AT-95Ex, depending on the music genre'. But hey, this was a surprise. So much so that I have left the Ortophon OM mounted for a week now, to see if it improves after it has had some time to run in. Under the microscope, the stylus is nicely finished, a bonded diamond elliptical tip on an aluminium cantilever. I have no idea which Ortophon stylus would be an equivalent, OM10, 20, 40, but I suspect it would be the 10 or 20 considering the price I paid. D&K don't specify, they just say "equivalent to OM 10/20/40" . It's much better than the 5 and it's not the DJ stylus. The sound compares well with my AT95Ex, the highs are clean and the low end is well controlled with nice low reach. Mids are excellent but most surprising of all is that the soundstage is superb - better than the AT or the Shure cartridges. I am so impressed that I have a genuine Ortophon OM20e stylus on my wish list.

So, there it is for what it's worth. Don't knock it until you have tried it.