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Goldring Cartridges Stockist UK

Goldring started life in Berlin in 1906 when two Czech born brothers, Heinrich and Julius Scharf, began to manufacture parts for the nascent gramophone industry under the name Gebrüder Scharf. At first the Scharf brothers concentrated on gramophone needles, clockwork motors and governor springs but soon branched out into more sophisticated “sound boxes” - which were the all-acoustic ancestors of the modern magnetic pickup.

Throughout the 1920s product development continued and in 1926 the now iconic Juwel Electro sound box was launched, incorporating a mica diaphragm and sporting the Gold Ring trademark to denote superior quality. These pieces were designed specifically to get the most out of the latest electrically recorded gramophone records, hence the Electro moniker.

In 1953 the company was officially renamed “Goldring Manufacturing (GB) Ltd” and was soon relocated to Leytonstone in East London where nearly 100 employees worked on every stage of manufacture. The Scharf brothers pushed ahead developing revolutionary and highly successful magnetic pick-ups such as the No. 500. It had a ‘turnover’ 33/45 rpm double sapphire stylus and was smaller and lighter than the older designs, being described as the first ever hi-fi cartridge with low dynamic mass. The Goldring 500 was widely used by the BBC and was acclaimed throughout the world, giving Goldring a place at the top table of globally-renowned hi-fi manufacturers.

The company took a second venture into turntable design in the early 2000s, launching the GR1 turntable in 2003 followed by the award-winning GR2 in 2005. Cartridge development continued with the introduction of the 2000 series which implemented a moving iron design with low moving mass and a range of advanced stylus profiles. Goldring moved to Bishops Stortford and in 2009 the flagship Legacy MC cartridge was launched, combining an innovative design from our ‘back catalogue’ with modern materials and manufacturing techniques to produce a class-leading result.

Thanks to a resurgence of vinyl popularity throughout the early 2010s, a new market began to emerge with a younger generation of consumers turning their attention to turntables and cartridges. Goldring responded by developing the E series, a set of high-quality entry level MM cartridges which were well received by Vinyl enthusiasts. We also pushed ahead with MC cartridge development, making use of emerging technologies to create the Ethos, our highest performing moving coil cartridge, launched in 2018.

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