Benz Micro

Benz Micro was founded by Ernst Benz in 1970, beginning MC phono cartridge production in the early 1980s. Ernst Benz, born in Canton Schaffhaussen, Switzerland, was a trained transducer engineer who worked at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in Pasadena, CA during the 1960s before returning to Switzerland. He designed the first generation of Benz-Micro moving coil cartridges, including the MC-3, MC-100, and MC-200. In 1994, Albert Lukaschek took over from Ernst Benz, who passed away in 2014 at age 82. Under Lukaschek's leadership from their Swiss facility in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, the company focuses on hand-crafted premium phono cartridges. Following a brief absence from the US market, Sierra Sound became the official distributor in 2020, and the company has streamlined production to focus on their most popular models while maintaining their reputation for exceptional Swiss craftsmanship.