The Ortofon Exclusives series cartridges are widely acknowledged as being some of the best Moving Coil cartridges on the market, and we are continuously working on expanding the Exclusives range to offer music lovers even more opportunities to experience the supreme quality, precision, impact and dynamics that a highend reference cartridge conveys.

The MC Verismo has been developed based on our extensive knowledge of vibration properties, different shapes and materials characteristics, as well as competences in magnetism, mechanical design and technologies. This new state-of-the-art product, representative of numerous Ortofon design ideals, is truly exemplary of the highest degree of performance possible in contemporary analogue playback technology. The MC Verismo will undoubtedly provide sound which simply has to be experienced.

The story behind the name

The name Verismo is derived from the Italian “vero”, meaning “true” and is the Italian for "realism". Versimo was a post-Romantic operatic genre, that had its origins in an Italian literary movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Verismo's operatic tradition is associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini, who sought to portray the world with greater realism.

At Ortofon, our ultimate purpose is to continually raise the bar for true, faithful and accurate reproduction of the recorded sound. It is to provide the ultimate musical experience through a mixture of innovation and technical expertise, creating unique value for all listeners by allowing them to reveal music’s true inner emotions.

Design elements and high-end materials

The housing of the Verismo cartridge is made in Titanium with the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technique pioneered by Ortofon. This technique allows for precise control of the density of the body material, allowing for extremely high internal damping.
The MC Verismo makes use of Ortofon’s Replicant 100 diamond. This Line Contact type stylus distinguishes itself by having a narrow and long contact surface, which is as close as possible to the original cutting stylus. This ensures the most accurate reproduction, lowest distortion and extended frequency range.
The addition of a solid Diamond cantilever provides the best possible interface between the stylus and armature, owing to its hardness and crystal structure. The improvements found in the use of a Diamond cantilever have redefined the boundaries of analogue reproduction, presenting greater inner detail, subtlety, and depth like never before.

Performance with a range of compatibility

In the MC Verismo the cartridge’s contact with the tonearm takes place through three well-defined contact points placed on the top side of the cartridge. This means that the mechanical integration of the cartridge and the tonearm arm is always absolutely perfect and will result in a significant and breathtaking increase in dynamics, resolution, and richness in detail.

With optimized weight and moderate compliance to suit the majority of modern tonearms, the MC Verismo is easily compatible with an endless array of contemporary high-end turntable equipment.

Output voltage at 1 kHz, 5cm/sec. 0.2 mV
Channel balance at 1 kHz 0.5 dB
Channel separation at 1 kHz 25 dB
Channel separation at 15 kHz 20 dB
Frequency response 20 Hz-20 kHz +2 dB/- 1 dB
Tracking ability at 315 Hz at recommended tracking force 80 µm
Compliance, dynamic, lateral 13 µm/mN
Stylus type Special polished Nude Ortofon Replicant 100 on Diamond Cantilever
Stylus tip radius r/R 5/100 µm
Tracking force range 2.5-2.8 g (25-28 mN)
Tracking force, recommended 2.6 g (26 mN)
Tracking angle 23°
Internal impedance, DC resistance 7 Ohm
Recommended load impedance 10 Ohm
Coil wire material Aucurum, gold-plated, 6NX oxygen free copper
Cartridge body material SLM Titanium
Cartridge colour Silver
Cartidge weight 9.5 g