Ortofon 2M Red Premounted Headshell Cartridge

The Ortofon 2M Red Premounted pairs Ortofon's popular 2M Red moving magnet cartridge with the SH-4 black headshell, factory-aligned to Baerwald geometry for S-shaped tonearms with universal mounts. This eliminates what is often the most frustrating step in turntable setup — aligning a cartridge by hand with protractors and adjustment screws. Instead, you attach the headshell to your tonearm, set the tracking force to the recommended 1.8 grams, and you are ready to play. The result is a genuine plug-and-play experience that does not sacrifice sound quality for convenience.

The 2M Red cartridge itself features an elliptical stylus on an aluminum cantilever, delivering a frequency response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz and an output voltage of 5.5 mV — more than sufficient for any standard phono stage. The elliptical tip traces groove modulations with greater precision than conical alternatives, pulling more detail from your records. A significant advantage of the 2M platform is its upgrade path: the stylus can be swapped for a 2M Blue, Silver, or Bronze replacement without removing the cartridge, allowing you to improve performance incrementally over time. With a tracking ability of 70 µm and compliance of 20 µm/mN, the 2M Red Premounted is well matched to a wide range of medium-mass tonearms commonly found on popular turntables.