Clearaudio Concept turntable...

I've always been curious about Clearaudio's higher end tables. I know this is ignorant on my part, but I'm never sure about a range of tables that look identical from across the room.

 

I think my retirement gift to myself is going to be a Clearaudio Innovation. I have over a decade to save my pennies.

 

My Garrard was my retirement gift to myself. I'm 38. Best to front-load these things IMO.

 

My reason for asking after the Clearaudio(and the response to what is a fairly "middle order" turntable seems positive to date) was that I intend to pair it with the speakers/stands illustrated,driven by an Arcam Delta 290/290P: The Arcam has a factory fitted phono stage that was optional:I have auditioned this stage up against a good few affordable "stand alone" pre-amps,and the Arcam(to date) more than holds it own.Given that I will listen in the forseeable future to any audio equipment in less than ideal circumstances due to room restraints,do you think this would be a well matched budget system?

 

I've got the slightly upgraded Concept Wood MC, which I think sounds great. The main difference in the Wood (other than the obvious) is that it comes with a better tonearm, the Satisfy, which I found better than the Verify on the regular Concept. It's got a mechanical bearing rather than a magnetic one. Between the MM and the MC version, I found the MC was the way to go. I listened to the 'table with the standard MM, and I owned an Ortofon 2M Bronze for a while, but the Concept MC is superior to them both.

I added the relatively pricey dust cover, and the Concept Clamp (really a ballast), the latter of which made a really nice difference in the sound. Tighter, better bass and blacker backgrounds. Overall, this was a fairly expensive first-timer setup, but I've been very pleased with it. The quality is excellent and the sound is superb. I'm now looking at upgrading some other components to really bring out its best.

 

Oh please! "German Engineering" is nothing more than marketing BS. I purchased a new ClearAudio Concept last year. When it arrived, the entire tonearm assembly had fallen out and was banging around inside the shipping box for the whole journey. Someone forgot to tighten a set screw. So much for "German Engineering".

(On a side note, my last GF always used to purchase German automobiles (all new) and I was constantly following her to the dealership to drop off her cars because they were always there for service. I asked her once why she insists on German automobiles and her response was "they're better made". Better made than what? The American cars I drive that I keep picking her up at the German dealership with when she's getting service, the same Americsn cars that I never need to bring in for service?)

Sorry, rant over.

 

German Engineering != German QC.

 

At least the Concept's exhaust emissions won't be a factor. *cough*

 

Yeah, I don't really buy that. However, my Clearaudio gear seems of very high quality and has been trouble-free for a bit over a year. I'm not sure the packing/shipping issue you experienced is indicative of an engineering issue.

Completely OT, but regarding the cars, some German marks fare better than others. Porsche usually gets high marks for quality. I'd take a Lexus over a Mercedes at this point in terms of quality (though MB still has some stuff I wouldn't mind owning of money were no object).

 

You never service your car? Ever? That's not something we tend to shout about...

 

If you trust it, think about the used/nearly new market, maybe from a reputable dealer. £ 1000 will probably put you in the (new equivalent) £ 1300 to £1500 bracket. Decks at that price are so well engineered that a couple of years use is basically running in, apart from the cartridge. I got my Michell Gyro SE that way. eBay or the specialist sites can help you on guide prices.

 

Agreed, poor choice of words on my part. I should have said the GF's automobiles were always in for repairs, not service. And yes, of course, I service all my vehicles on schedule. I'm probably a bigger automobile fan than an audio fan! Okay, back to the Clearaudio discussion...

 

FWIW, I picked up my concept for $1000 BNIB on Audiogon. It came with the Concept MM cart at that price. It was a great deal, admittedly, but I've seen them for $800 without carts. I sold mine for a little under that and was quite happy with what I paid vs what I sold it for and was happy someone else is enjoying it quite a lot for not a ton of money

 

My understanding is AR turntables are fairly uncommon in the UK. If you can deal with the expense of shipping it overseas, I know two guys in the USA that work wonders with AR tables. One is Dave Archambault (aka @ddarch ) of vinylnirvana.com in New Hampshire, and the other is Marc Morin in Columbus, Ohio.

Marc did some expensive upgrade work to my AR-TX (including installing his own self-designed and -fabricated parts) and for a surprisingly low cost it now performs easily on par with a $1500-$2000 new table - yet Ed Villchur's design intention is still intact, just enhancd. You might consider going that route instead of buying something new.

Feel free to drop me a line if you want more details.

 

Here is mine. I love it so far.





Just need to upgrade the phono stage and get my dedicated listening room setup and all will be right.

It runs a low output MC cart so I need a better phono stage which I'll get next month.

 

Wow. One would think having a leftover artillery piece from the Miami Bass Wars right next to their turntable wouldn't work, but I'm guessing its okay?

 

I have it and love it. The Ortofon 2M Black is an excellent cartridge match. The best part about the Clearaudio turntables is they're powered by DC so you can run them on batteries. My entire system runs on batteries so it was an easy choice.

 

Yeah I'm moving house next year so it will be spread out a lot more. I got no room so I can only use what I have right now. It should be minimum 2m away really.

It can handle vibration though and I'm getting some isolation platforms to rest the TT on soon.

I got it at a really good price and it's my dream sub so I had to jump on it.

 

funk firm boing feet at mcru »

Does anyone have any opinions on these? They look like they would match the clearaudio concept well but I can't find reviews anywhere.

Do you think this would help with isolation and would give me an improvement in the sound overall?

 

What kind of unit are you using to house the batteries and power the TT?

 

whaiyun, Red Wine Audio Black Lightning.

I like Townshend Seismic Pods under my Concept.

 

Those seem to be 5 or so times the price of the ones I listed. Also with those pods, do you remove the original feet? How do they fit on the concept?

 

No foot removal. You set the turntable on the pods. I use 3.

 

the company is discontinued. and their replacement company (listed on their website) doesn't have a replacement for this part.... fun.
I wonder how hard it is to build a battery pack to power this table?

 

Email [email protected] and he'll snap you up one no problem.