Ortofon ULM-55E
The Ortofon ULM-55E is a phono cartridge from Ortofon's ULM series. Surviving documentation puts it almost entirely with Dual turntables. Dual supplied it and reviewed it with its late-1970s record players.
HiFI-Stereo (December 1979, p.56) tested the ULM-55E as part of the Dual 506 package. Output declined gently from roughly 500 to 10,000 Hz. With Dual's recommended 400 picofarads of total capacitance, though, the response came in flat within ±1.5 dB from 40 to 20,000 Hz on the CBS STR100 test record. The cartridge was clearly meant for the low-mass tonearms of the period. High Fidelity used it as a reference pickup in turntable tests (1980, p.111; 1981, p.179). It noted resonances around 7.8 Hz with a 5.5-gram effective tonearm mass and an 8-gram tonearm pairing respectively.
Little else is documented. No standalone specifications, original price, production years or model-family details have surfaced beyond these period test reports.
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