Tonar Turns 70

Tonar turns 70!

Seven decades of the best styli and cartridges on record.

Tonar celebrates its 70th anniversary. Over the past decades, the iconic Tonar yellow has become a trusted brand for anyone who enjoys listening to vinyl. From replacement phono styli, to cartridges, cleaning accessories or parts to improve the overall analog audio experience. Whether you belong to the new generation of vinyl lovers, or are already an experienced analog High End HiFi enthusiast, Tonar’s aim is to provide you with all essential tools necessary to fully enjoy your record collection.

World’s specialist in phonograph styli and cartridges

Tonar was founded in 1954 by Wilf Libgott, a Canadian pilot for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Between the long-distance flights to the Americas and Japan, he started the company in his spare time. Originally Tonar was an O.E.M supplier, specializing in the field of synthetic sapphire products, such as bearings for watches, gas meters and other instruments. These parts were sold to industrial users. Soon a phonograph cartridge manufacturer contacted Tonar to purchase sapphire tips for their phonograph needles. This was the first step into what is currently the company’s core business – replacement styli and cartridges for record players. Tonar now boasts a huge collection of phonograph replacement needles, original needles, phonograph cartridges and accessories for vinyl. The current line consists of more than 3000 replacement needles and original needles, as well as more than 1500 different types of phonograph cartridges.

Today, Tonar is the world’s leading and most specialized supplier of phono styli and cartridges.

The Dutch-based company offers special shape cartridges for old record players where only one cartridge model will fit, as well as standard ½ inch mount cartridges, T4P-plug-in cartridges, crystal, ceramic, moving magnet, induced magnet, moving iron and moving coil type cartridges. Our cartridges and styli are not only used in hi-fi record players but also in 78 RPM Pathe-phone’s, vintage record players and juke boxes.

Vinyl cleaning and sound improvement

Aside from replacement styli and cartridges, Tonar offers a full line of accessories for vinyl cleaning and sound improvement. The Tonar Classic Brush and the carbon fiber Nostatic brush are found near many turntables for a quick swipe of the record to remove the dust and the static charge. Recently, Tonar has developed the Wash & Dry vinyl washing machine, an affordable device to clean your record collection with an extremely silent yet powerful vacuum motor. Aside from that, Tonar offers various turntable mats, record weights and lightweight clamps, to reduce unwanted vibrations and to improve the sound quality during playback.

In addition, Tonar is the distributor of many leading audio brands. This includes GRADO Phono Cartridges from Brooklyn New York, JICO styli and cartridges from Japan, KNOSTI vinyl washing machines from Germany, the StylusTimer and the Q-UP automatic tone arm lifter.

Sharing a passion for analog sound reproduction, Tonar tries to keep supplying every item you may require to bring or keep your HiFi record player up and running, whether it be a stylus, a cartridge, a new turntable belt or even many other original or replacement parts that you require in order to enjoy listening to your vinyl records.