SPU 90 Anniversary

About the SPU 90 Anniversary

The Ortofon SPU 90th Anniversary is a G-style moving coil cartridge released in 2008 to celebrate Ortofon's 90 years of audio engineering. Limited to 500 units, it represents a significant advancement in the SPU cartridge lineage. The cartridge features a completely new patent-pending magnetic system with three-piece design (one wedge-shaped magnet with separate pole pieces), the renowned Field Stabilizing Element (FSE) system for maintaining consistent flux regardless of cantilever deflection, and a revolutionary one-piece wooden housing that provides direct connection between the generator system and body for extremely high internal damping. The cartridge employs Selective Laser Melting (SLM) manufacturing technique, where micro particles are laser-welded together layer by layer for high rigidity and reduced unwanted resonances. The aluminum cantilever is topped with a nude elliptical diamond stylus. Internal wiring uses silver-plated ultra high purity (6NX) copper wire with ultra high purity (6NX) silver terminal leads and gold-plated connectors. The cartridge body is constructed from wood powder and phenolic resin with a shiny black finish. Designed for tonearms accommodating its 50mm stylus-to-arm-collet distance, it is best suited for medium to high mass tonearms with SME standard signal connections and benefits from a step-up transformer with low impedance primary due to its low output and coil resistance.