Clearaudio-maPlatine.com event – The Big Day

Here is a second article covering the Clearaudio-maPlatine.com event! For information about the event preparations, click HERE.

Wednesday 10 June; 10.30 a.m. – Journalists arrive

Journalists start to arrive, taking the opportunity of a quiet moment to interview Robert Suchy and Franck our product expert and co-founder of maPlatine.com. They also took the time to take a few shots of the products on display for the demos with headphones and record cleaning and ask questions.

Wednesday 10 June; 11.30 a.m. – Presentation of Clearaudio to the journalists

Robert Suchy explains Clearaudio‘s philosophy and the manufacturing processes. To put his words into action, we went to the room with the Master Innovation vinyl turntable. ‘Close your eyes and feel the music’ is the way to approach the Master Innovation and we were heartily encouraged to follow Robert Suchy’s example! Clearaudio‘s prime concern is to allow listeners to feel the music via its products (turntables, cartridges, phono preamps, etc.). The trial session started with a vinyl record produced by Clearaudio that brings percussions to centre stage with great subtleness.

Wednesday 10 June; 12:00 p.m. – Demo of the static elements

At around noon, we went to the ‘small room’ where the ‘newborn’ is on display: the Double Matrix Sonic record cleaner released in early 2015, along with two new turntables: the Ovation and theInnovation.

Focus on Clearaudio’s Double Matrix Sonic record cleaner

By way of introduction to the vinyl record cleaner Robert Suchy asked the audience what the most important element for record lovers was. The answer to that is obviously a clean record to be able to play it for as long as possible and enjoy the sound performance of our system. And this is precisely the purpose that the record cleaner developed by Clearaudio serves. Robert Suchy then explained the operation and technology behind the machine, whose main features are: – Its Ultra-Sonic power that literally picks up any dirt and dust lodged deep down inside the groove – The fully automatic cleaning process. All you have to do is put the record in place and the machine does the rest: you don’t have to apply the product on the surface of the LP, a small reservoir with a pump does it all for you, unlike the Smart Matrix Pro machine – Unlike its little sister, the Smart Matrix Pro, with its double sided cleaning, you do not have to turn the record over to clean each side with the Double Matrix Sonic. – Clearaudio has focused on the noise of this machine, especially for the vacuum cycle. The Matrix Sonic is very silent compared with its younger sibling. You can easily clean your LPs and listen to good music on your vinyl turntable! 🙂 A demo then took place. Robert Suchy asked journalists to touch a record. Fingers leave a greasy mark on the surface of the record and are often difficult to clean off. The result blew the crowd’s mind away! The record came out in pristine condition! Franck, the co-founder of maPlatine.com took the opportunity to share an anecdote about the machine. Franck loves music and has an extensive record collection, some of which are rare and thus valuable. He also told us that on the record market, there were several categories. Below are a few of them, from the most expensive to the least expensive: – New and never opened (Mint) – Open packaging but as new (VG+: Very Good +): sleeve in mint condition, almost new and no surface noise – Packaging open with a bit of surface noise (VG or VG-) One day, Franck uncovered a rare record that he had wanted for a long time. Considering the extortionate price of the record in Mint condition, he found someone who was selling it 3 times cheaper in VG-. The record he got had been lying in a loft for years and was covered with mould and dust and just couldn’t be played! So he used the Smart Matrix Pro record cleanerby Clearaudio and the record came out as good as new (VG+). ‘That’s why the record cleaner is so important, you may think that a record is worthless and scratched when in fact it’s only dirty’.

Focus on the Ovation and Innovation turntables

We then moved on to explanations about the Ovation and Innovation turntables. The two turntables have magnetic bearing tonearms, allowing the tonearm to levitate between two powerful magnets, which minimises friction and improves the sonic performance of your Hi-Fi system. These two vinyl turntables are typically very heavy. Their weight makes them much less sensitive to ambient vibration or that generated by the motor for example. The quality of the materials used to obtain this kind of weight cannot be applied to more affordable turntables. The platter of the Ovation vinyl turntable features many cavities that each accommodate around 100,000 metal micro-balls! This does not only increase the weight of course, it specifically dampens vibrations to which the turntable might be subject. This clever process is courtesy of Clearaudio! The Clearaudio Innovation vinyl turntable, the younger sibling of the Master Innovation turntable has a very exclusive triangular shape. Clearaudio‘s R&D centre conducted extensive research work and found out that the smaller the surface area, the more stability the vinyl turntable would have. They successfully combined weight and reduced surface to give the Innovation turntable its triangular design. Hence the unique platter design minimises the surface area and enables the use of a very hard material. The triangular design was the ideal compromise. In Robert Suchy’s own words: ‘The design serves the purpose and not the opposite’. We think that the uncluttered design of this turntable is truly amazing.

Wednesday 10 June; 1.15 p.m.- Lunch with journalists and the Clearaudio team

It is now time to take a break and have a bite to eat. Lunch was at the Golf Cap Malo restaurant. We even met some of our guest customers who were attending the 2.30 p.m. session! Last article covering the Clearaudio – maPlatine.com event next week! PART 3 >> HERE

Relive the event through this video!