Ortofon SPU Cartridges and Accessories

The SPU (short for Stereo Pick Up) was one of the first cartridges produced for stereo playback, in 1960. It was primarily used in broadcast applications initially, but has gained a very loyal following as an extremely musical cartridge range.

The latest versions are updated, but they are still pleasingly anachronistic, and require a moderate to high mass tonearm for best results. They are all Moving Coil cartridges and are have outputs between low and normal MC output levels depending upon the model.

There are three versions of the SPU recipe, which refers to the housing/headshell arrangement:

'G' The most popular design, these are integrated in a 'full size' headshell.

'A' A much Shorter version of the headshell, for arms specifically designed with this in mind. There are no current production versions of these.

'N' These do away with the integrated headshell, and go for a 1/2" mount, but do require care matching with a suitable headshell (or mounting into an existing SPU cartridge body).