There are quite a few things in the life of an diy LoFi enthusiast that are written in stone. One is that there are some styli that one has to have owned once no matter if she/he has other preferences … it’s about systems like Audio Technica AT95, Denon DL103, Ortofon SPU for instance. Each of these has its strengths and even if their price points differ heavily all offer a value one can’t measure high enough IMHO.
It’s mainly about the joy these offer – each in his own rights of course – something you can’t talk it away it’s kind of strange but this surely ain’t my thoughts alone … well, and of course there is the Ortofon Concorde family of moving magnet stereo pickups that may have helped save the vinyl press plants because real DJs used to and still do favour vinyl plus many DJs use these systems … even though you see more and more of them using digital sources these days *shudder*
I honestly can’t remember to have seen any Technics 12xx turntable used in a club that didn’t have a Concorde DJ system attached. This combination is a real no-brainer.

In my case it’s AT95 and DL103 *check* the SPU has been too pricy so far but the latest generation of Concorde pickups starts with the Mix which is a real bargain at less that 100€.
Best thing is that Thomann still offers this at 79€ as a special version to celebrate 70 years of company history. The system is of course a real one from Denmark but its colour combination is not black/green but black/turquoise other than that it is the real stuff even if someone might argue that this is only 99.99999% of what you can get for a mere 10€ more 🙂

The parcel arrived just in time for Friday evening listening fun and after some quick adjustments to my Schick 12″ tonearm I started to listen to some of the vinyl records I know best. Seriously the first impressions have been overwhelming. Yes, it may add a bit to much energy to the upper bass frequency range but over all it really made me think „Why pay more for a pickup if you can get all this fun from the entry level Concorde?“
This will be something for me to examine in the – hopefully not so far away – future but for now I am more than happy with what this system offers. I am very keen on getting my hands on one of the Concorde music systems.

While writing this I also listened to Bill Henderson’s lovely „Send In the Clowns“ and believe it or not it was a mesmerizing experience to listen to this piece … I am in love with this stylus as it seems <3

Music I listened to so far include these exquisite albums & 12″ singles …
* ALL – ALLROY SEZ ….
* Bill Henderson – Send In The Clowns
* DYS – Fire & Ice
* EA80 – Licht!
* Neil Young – LIVE RUST
* Skinny Puppy – Remission
* Tangerine Dream – Ricochet
* Vangelis – Blade Runner Soundtrack
* Yello – The Race

Links related to the Concorde range of pickups
* Ortofon Concorde history https://ortofon.com/blogs/news/when-a-cartridge-became-a-legend
* Historical Concorde DJ systems https://ortofon.com/pages/historical-dj-products/
* Ortofon Concorde MKII series https://ortofon.com/collections/concorde-mkii-series
* Ortofon Concorde Music series https://ortofon.com/collections/concorde-music

Holger Barske wrote an article about the Music series for Lp Magazin. Thanks, Holger I was unsure if these styli would work on my Schick tonearm before I read this test.
* Play of colors – Pickup Cardridge Ortofon Concorde Music https://lp-magazin.de/test.php?id=24021
* Farbenspiele – Tonabnehmer Ortofon Concorde Music https://lp-magazin.de/test.php?id=23643