Clearaudio has been a renowned brand in the analogue and high-fidelity world for over 40 years now. The firm was born in 1978 all thanks to Peter Suchy, an engineer “not satisfied with the statu quo.” At first, Clearaudio earned their reputation in this world with phono cartridges using balanced technologies still unknown at the time. The company would gradually diversify to offer more analogue products: Turntables, tonearms, accessories, cleaning machines, preamplifiers…
Today, the brand produces most of the components in-house and, if necessary, they can employ quality manufacturers for other components. Numerous engineers coming from the whole world strive to perpetuate the values originally held by Peter Suchy and then his successors: “Take the best and make it better, then it’s just about good enough.” Clearaudio has now become a leading brand in the analogue world and is constantly seeking the forefront of innovation.
Recently, the German brand came back on the turntable market, with five new packages (See all Clearaudio packages), designed for all types of listening experiences with carefully studied combinations to ensure the best result. In each package, Clearaudio offers the Concept turntable, associated with different kinds of tonearms and cartridges. Immerse yourself in this article to understand a little better the difference with every package.
“Take the best…
CONCEPT TURNTABLE
Clearaudio offers a variety of different product ranges in accordance with the customers’ expectations and budget. The “Concept” turntable range is part of the most affordable ones. Affordable yes, but not less effective and innovating than its counterparts.
The Concept range is a series of high-quality turntables available in various stylish finishes. There are “classic” colours like black or silver, but also higher-end finishes such as different species of woods. On the top of the plinth, there’s systematically a high-end satin black plastic compound to obtain a very sophisticated result. Not only the set is aesthetic, it’s designed to reduce resonance, as well as mechanical and acoustic noise to the maximum.
Regarding the technology offered by this turntable, Clearaudio remains true to their values and offers products at the forefront of innovation. The 3-cm thick platter is driven by a flat belt. The drive belt runs thanks to a decoupled DC motor, providing it with near perfect listening fluidity. The power supply of the turntable is achieved using a separate block allowing to reduce reproduction noise, but also adapt to networks worldwide.
The turntable is able to play 33, 45 and 78 rpm vinyl records, speed control is electrically adjustable via a button. In addition to its numerous technical specificities, this Concept turntable is a so-called “plug and play” turntable. In other words, it’s very easy to use: you only need to connect it and enjoy your vinyl records.
…and make it better…
In order to diversify combinations and offer packages adapted for all types of budgets and uses, the Concept turntable is proposed with several tonearm and cartridge combinations. Always looking for innovations, these combinations were designed by the brand itself.
CONCEPT TONEARM
To begin with, this is the original tonearm of the Concept turntable. It’s an aluminium tonearm featuring innovating technology: a magnetic repulsion axis. This means that there’s no direct contact and, therefore, considerably reduces wearing.
A stylish tonearm matching the turntable’s colours, namely black and silver, with high-precision manufacture to perfectly pair the whole turntable.
CLARIFY TONEARM
One of the packages proposed features another tonearm, mounted on the Concept turntable still. It’s a Clarify tonearm. Clearaudio’s “sweet pleasure.” It’s the case with the Concept Clarify Wood Pack turntable package for example.
This tonearm is provided with an equally innovative technology: due to the use of magnetic bearings, mechanical parts are not touching each other. As Clearaudio puts it so well: “no friction, no wear.” It’s a carbon tonearm.
The benefit of this tonearm is surely its versatility. In fact, you can associate almost every cartridge from 2.5 g to 17 g with it. This makes it a very versatile as well as stylish tonearm.
SATISFY KARDAN TONEARM
This last tonearm is even higher-end, having received a whole lot of awards. Again, this tonearm is equipped with magnetic technology. In fact, its anti-skating adjustment is achieved magnetically. This is once again an aluminium, carbon and steel tonearm.
This Satisfy Kardan tonearm is provided with a Directwire technology. In fact, the tonearm is connected so that the signal travels from the cartridge to the phono preamplifier without interruption, in order to retain all the information and prevent distortion or interference.
This tonearm is present on the Concept/Performer Kardan pack turntable, Concept Jubilee/Kardan pack turntable and Concept Maestro/Kardan pack turntable packages.
CARTRIDGES
The German manufacturer stood out from the competition and successfully launched in the High-Fidelity world first and foremost thanks to its innovative cartridge confection. It is therefore quite natural that they put forward proposals for these packages.
All these cartridges selected by Clearaudio to create tailor-made packages are the latest productions from the brand. They all feature the latest innovations. Among them, we can mention the housing still made of ebony wood, or the Jubilee cartridge available in different wood species. The desired aim is to reduce mechanical resonance to the maximum. Clearaudio even goes so far as to say that this wooden component allows reproduction to have a “more natural sound”, and to be aesthetically superior to resin or aluminium.
Besides this decision concerning wood, the components were also revisited and enhanced. The ratio between the numerous levels of inductance, capacity, load but also sensitivity have been studied to reduce distortion and interference to the maximum. All this while increasing output level and frequency response. To do so, Clearaudio redesigned all the cartridge coils and added even more powerful magnets.
Here are the cartridges cleverly selected by Clearaudio:
- Performer V2 cartridge: it’s a moving magnet cartridge (MM) provided with an elliptical stylus.
- Jubilee cartridge: again, this is a moving magnet cartridge (MM). This cartridge features an elliptical stylus as well. As for the cantilever, it’s made of aluminium.
- Maestro V2 cartridge : this is once again a moving magnet cartridge (MM), but it stands out in another way. Indeed, its micro-HD stylus is manufactured with finesse in order to obtain a shape similar to the recording stylus. This stylus is mounted on a boron cantilever.
- Artist V2 cartridge: to finish with this series, one last moving magnet cartridge (MM). The stylus is elliptically shaped.
… then it’s just about good enough”
Now that we went through the specificities of each adjustable part of the packages, let us once more take a closer look at the contents of each pack:
- Concept Performer pack turntable: these are Concept’s original turntable and tonearm mounted with a Performer V2 MM cartridge.
- Concept Performer Kardan pack turntable: Once more, it’s the Concept turntable which is this time mounted with the Satisfy Kardan tonearm and the Performer V2 MM cartridge.
- Concept Clarify Wood pack turntable: i.e. the Concept turntable and Clarify Carbon tonearm equipped with the Artist V2 MM cartridge.
- Concept Jubilee/Kardan pack: still the Concept turntable, associated with the Satisfy Kardan tonearm, and the Jubilee MM cartridge.
- Concept Maestro/Kardan pack: the Concept range turntable, equipped with the Satisfy Kardan tonearm, and the Maestro V2 MM cartridge.
Thanks to this brief overview of the different components from the packages, you now have all the required information to make an informed choice. Each package was designed by Clearaudio, ensuring control and performance of the combination. If nevertheless you still have questions, our experts are at your disposal by mail or by telephone.