Archive / Classics, 1946 to 1969
SPU
SPU (Stereo Pick-Up). Cartridge, Ortofon, 1959
Ortofon's first stereo cartridge, a low-impedance moving coil design that Ortofon says is the only one of its stereo cartridges to survive since launch.
A-16, isometric, same camera for both
- Drawing
- A-16
- Introduced
- 1959
- Produced
- 1959 to present
- Made in
- Denmark
- Designed by
- Robert Gudmandsen
- Launch price
- Not confirmed
- Size
- Not published
- Weight
- 0.03 kg
Ortofon introduced the Stereo Pick-Up in 1959, aimed at professionals, with Robert Gudmandsen's ideas behind the design. The early 1960s line had E, G and T versions, and the G version in an SME-fit G-shell became the SPU Classic. Ortofon reintroduced the SPU Classic in 1987 with an 18 micrometre nude spherical stylus and an aluminium-magnesium alloy housing. The company dates the launch to 1959 on some pages and to 1958 on others.
Specification
| Item | As published |
|---|---|
| Output voltage | 0.2 mV at 1 kHz, 5 cm/s (SPU Classic) |
| Stylus | Nude spherical, 18 micrometre tip radius (SPU Classic) |
| Compliance | 8 micrometre/mN, dynamic lateral |
| Tracking force | 3.0 to 5.0 g, recommended 4.0 g |
| Weight | 30 g |
Still in production
Ortofon SPU Classic G MKII
Ortofon still makes it. Pricing is through dealers.
The house
- Founded
- 1918
- Founder
- Axel Petersen and Arnold Poulsen
- Origin
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Today
- A group of private investors took over the company in 2004, and it is headquartered in Denmark.
Sources
- https://ortofon.com/pages/spu-classic
- https://ortofon.com/pages/spu-century
- https://ortofon.com/collections/spu-series
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortofon
Notes for the record: Launch year conflicts across Ortofon's own pages: the SPU Century page says 1958, the SPU Classic page says 1959, and Wikipedia says 1959. Specifications are for the current SPU Classic, taken from current Ortofon pages. Ortofon's page names Robert Gudmandsen as engineer; a search summary of another Ortofon page says the original was effectively two cartridges mounted in parallel, which I did not open. Ortofon was founded on 9 October 1918 in Copenhagen as the Electrical Phono Film Company by Axel Petersen and Arnold Poulsen (Wikipedia).