While the Awards may have changed to a new format in 2025, their recognition of multiple products from the Clearaudio range remains a constant. Seven of the German analogue brand’s components are featured in the November issue, which focuses specifically on hi-fi designed for the typical home listening / living room.

Turntables

Kicking off with turntables priced in Clearaudio’s mid-range, the Performance DC Wood AiR, partnered here with Clearaudio’s Tracer tonearm, “should be on your shortlist”, says the magazine. Its “evenhandedness and consistency” delivers “a realistic and compelling presentation” that “benefits any type of music, making [this turntable] an excellent choice for multi-genre vinyl lovers who [like the magazine’s reviewers] have all-over-the-map musical tastes.” 

Also in the mid-range, the latest iteration of Clearaudio’s Ovation turntable builds on the brand’s famous high-end plug-and-play Concept’s model by “bundling together even more sophisticated turntables, arms and cartridges into fine-sounding but relatively hassle-free combinations”. Partnered here with the Tracer carbon-fibre tonearm and Talisman v2.1 Gold cartridge, this “terrific-sounding combo… may be the most ambitious such package yet”.

Phono cartridges

Clearaudio has been engaged in ongoing research into moving coil technology since the company’s inception in 1978, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the company’s current range of phono cartridges continues to earn a selection of awards.

The Maestro v2 Ebony, as its name might suggest, “brings symphonic recordings to life, unifying each orchestral section into the greater whole” and is “as musical as they come”. Co-winner of The Absolute Sound’s 2013 Phono Cartridge of the Year Award, the Maestro “should be required listening for moving-magnet and moving-coil fans alike”.

The Charisma v2.1, 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. Tracking is unshakeable and effortless, allowing transients to be reproduced with unalloyed naturalism”, and it “retrieves images like they’re being monitored by LoJack”.

The Talisman v2.1 “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. Yet it’s also dynamic as all get out, with terrific rhythmic spring and timing.”

Finally, the The Concerto v2 is “the entry-level cartridge in Clearaudio’s ‘super-class’ of moving coils, and super it is!”. Its design uses wood “to add a touch of warmth and richness, yet it retains the superb focus, resolution, transient quickness, and top-end extension that have been hallmarks of Clearaudio’s reference cartridges”.

Accessories

As a specialist in all-things analogue, Clearaudio offers a range of innovative accessories designed to help vinyl lovers get the absolute best from their hi-fi system.

“Featuring grooves that create the additional stylus drag necessary to accurately measure your turntable’s speed – while at the same time doubling as a cartridge break-in device – Clearaudio’s Stroboscope Test Record and Speed Light are great tools for the vinyl junkie”.

Find out more about Clearaudio’s multi-award winning range at www.clearaudio.de/en, and locate your nearest specialist retailer via UK distributor www.soundfowndations.co.uk

For full details of The Absolute Sound‘s new Editors’ Choice Awards, pick up a copy of the November 2024 issue.