In 1948, Ortofon introduced the world's first moving coil cartridge. Since then, the MC principle has been universally acknowledged as the ultimate sonic performance. The high price of moving coil technology and the necessity of an outboard step up device to boost the low output voltage made the MC cartridges a luxury. With the introduction of the first High Output X Series cartridges, Ortofon demonstrated that it is possible to produce MC cartridges with sufficiently high output to eliminate the need for additional step-up devices without compromising the construction principles and unique sound quality of moving coil designs.