New Ortofon AS-212R Tonearm Listening Impressions
After a rather long wait, we now have the new Ortofon AS-212R 9″ and AS-309R 12″ tonearms in stock at Ammonite Audio. These arms are made in Japan to Ortofon’s design and specifications, with neat, almost plain styling. Incidentally, the model names look the wrong way round, but the numbers relate to mounting distance in millimetres, not effective length in inches! Ortofon have a rich tonearm heritage and the new models hark directly back to famous tonearms going back to the 1960s. Having waited so long for the arms to get here, we could not wait to hear what the 9″ AS-212R arm sounded like.
The AS-212R was very quickly and easily fitted to our Technics SL-1200GR turntable, using an Ammonite Audio Jelco armboard, and Ammonite Audio Jelco Mounting Collar (fully compatible with the new Ortofon arms) and the Ortofon SPU#1S cartridge shown in the picture above. The tonearm is physically heavier and more robust than it appears in the pictures, but at 7g effective mass it’s definitely a relatively light arm. Balancing the arm out level showed that the bearings are astonishingly free-running, with really low friction – we did not measure that but we would not be surprised if horizontal and vertical sensitivity is as low as 10mg, matching the very best arms. The headshell collet turns freely and grips the cartridge/headshell easily and with great security, as you might expect from an arm costing approaching £3k. Anti-skating is easily applied using the rotary knob, which is uncalibrated – we like that since the user has to engage brain and preferably adjust anti-skating by ear, but there are guidelines in the manual. Two counterweights are provided, with the larger one being necessary for heavy cartridges like SPUs. Overall, the arm is unfussy, and well thought out in terms of adjustments and use.
Connected up to our reference system (Phasemation EA-350 phono amplifier, Naim SuperNait3, KEF LS50 Meta speakers), the new AS-212R with entry-level Ortofon SPU#1S cartridge immediately grabbed our attention with a really rather lovely clear, confident mid band, combined with an authoritative and well controlled bass character that we were not expecting from such a low effective mass arm, even though the heavy SPU does lend its own effective mass to the arm. Sonically, it is extremely well balanced with a clear and confident voice that made the SPU#1S sound much more expensive than it is. Musical is an oft-derided term in audiophile circles but this arm, with the SPU, does play music in a most engaging manner, which is not always the case with every tonearm!
Overall, the AS-212R delivers a vibrant, confident and articulate sound that transcends its undramatic looks. This tonearm looks quite expensive until you hear it, and then it all makes sense. No, it’s not shiny and blingy, but it’s clearly properly designed and engineered where it all matters, by people who like music.