US audio magazine The Absolute Sound’s annual Editors’ Choice Awards highlight a selection of the world’s best-sounding hi-fi, and the 2023 selections feature 15 (yes, 15!) absolute winners from German analogue connoisseurs Clearaudio.
Turntables: the magnificent seven
Clearaudio’s compact, entry-level Concept deck must surely be a contender for ‘most-awarded turntable ever’, as well as being a runaway best-seller for more than a decade. One of the secrets to its ongoing success is Clearaudio’s continued innovation in creating variations on the theme. Another is its original winning formula: a simple, compact, plug-and-play deck that’s affordable, and yet is still very much-high end in tech and performance, sporting a raft of features borrowed from the company’s renowned top models. This year, three versions of the Concept are Award-winners.
The original Clearaudio Concept turntable package (including tonearm and MM or MC cartridge) still “does everything but unbox itself” and “for sheer musical engagement and speed stability, it’s the one to beat in this price range.”
Moving up a step, the Concept Black with Satisfy tonearm is “made like a fine mechanical Swiss watch’ and “is a model for how a mid-priced, belt-drive turntable should look and perform”.
Moving up another rung, the Concept Active “redefines what is means to be an affordable and accessible high-performance turntable in the here and now.” As well as tonearm and cartridge, this package includes “a top-notch built-in phonostage and headphone output” and delivers a performance that stands up in comparison to “far more elite rigs”.
Then again, if those ‘more elite rigs’ happen to be branded Clearaudio, then you’re in safe hands. Moving up form entry-level to the mid-range, the Performance DC delivers a “compelling presentation” that “benefits any type of music, making [this turntable] an excellent choice for multi-genre vinyl lovers who have all-over-the-map musical tastes.”
The latest iteration of Clearaudio’s Ovation turntable builds on the Concept’s model by “bundling together even more sophisticated turntables, arms and cartridges into fine-sounding but relatively hassle-free combinations”. Partnered with the Tracer carbon-fibre tonearm and Talisman v2 Gold cartridge, its “a terrific-sounding combo”.
As its name suggests, the dual-plinthed Innovation Wood “combines some stunning innovations” and delivers “superb speed accuracy” and “such rock-solid pitch stability.”
At the top of the Innovation series, the Master Innovation is “a brilliant Peter Suchy design” and one of reviewer Jonathan Valin’s references. This “engineering masterpiece” was also The Absolute Sound’s 2019 Turntable of the Year.
Six of the best: phono cartridges
From entry-level to all-out flagship statement piece, the full gamut of Clearaudio’s phono cartridge range is represented in this year’s Awards.
The Maestro v2 Ebony, as its name might suggest, “brings symphonic recordings to life, unifying each orchestral section into the greater whole.” Co-winner of The Absolute Sound’s 2013 Phono Cartridge of the Year Award, the Maestro is going from strength to strength and “should be required listening for moving-magnet and moving-coil fans alike”.
The Charisma v2, described by Clearaudio as company founder Peter Suchy’s ‘moving-magnet masterpiece’, “offers a full palette of tonal color vibrancy and timbral complexity, with classic midrange heft and bloom, electrifying dynamics, and top-end sweetness”.
The Talisman v2 “is one beautiful-sounding pickup, with a gorgeous midrange and bottom end, solid in all senses of the word, superb definition and clarity, and lots of heft and weight.
The Concerto v2 is “the entry-level cartridge in Clearaudio’s “super-class” of moving coils, and super it is,” with “superb focus, resolution, transient quickness, and top-end extension”.
The equally musically-named Stradivari v2 “ideally mediates warmth and detail, control and relaxation, liveliness and listenability, at virtually no sacrifice in tonal neutrality”.
Right at the top end and “a cartridge unlike any other” is Clearaudio’s flagship Goldfinger Statement: “simply the best – which is to say, the most sonically complete moving-coil cartridge [reviewer] Jonathan Valin has ever heard.”
Analogue accessories
Anyone with a superb analogue system will want to keep their kit and their vinyl in tip-top condition, and two further Clearaudio Award-winners will do just that. The Stroboscope Test Record and Speed Light “are great tools for the vinyl junkie”, designed to accurately measure turntable speed while doubling as a cartrigde break-in device, while the Double Matrix Professional Sonic is “a highest-quality record cleaner” featuring ultrasonic scrubbing and simultaneous cleaning of both sides of a record.
Find out more about all 15 Award-winners at www.clearaudio.de/en, and track down your nearest dealer via UK distributor www.soundfowndations.co.uk
Discover the complete list of Editors’ Choice Award winners in the March 2023 issue of The Absolute Sound.
David Denyer PR | The hi-fi specialist 