Here’s an ambiguous answer: both methods can produce great sound, if completely different.”The lightweight design approach is about PRaT, or Pace, Rhythm, and Timing,” Michael Trei, turntable setup expert and new Stereophile contributor, explained in an email.”Lightweight designs don’t store as much vibrational energy, and in a massive design, resonances can cause resonances to last longer, making the turntable sound deeper and more powerful, but less rhythmic.” Consider Michael Fremer A reference to Rega’s extremely light, $6375 Planar 10 (top of Rega’s lineup only, a reference to a carbon fiber Naiad at around $45,000) and the extremely heavy TechDAS Air Force Zero ($450,000 for its base version; Footnote 1).
Clearaudio’s Reference Jubilee turntable ($30,000) celebrating the company’s 40th anniversary appears to employ both principles.”Clearaudio’s founder, Peter Suchy, spread the word between resonance control, mass and damping,” Garth Leerer of Musical Surroundings, Clearaudio’s US distributor, told me over the phone.”Clearaudio doesn’t use a large steel disc in the Reference Jubilee; they use a stainless steel flywheel sub-disc. Clearaudio uses a POM in the main disc (footnote 2), a material that has good resonance control and a very low Q-factor: not a lot of ringing .Sometimes when you add higher quality materials they have their own ringing characteristics that can cause peaks in the frequency response. Apparently when you use Clearaudio’s Statement turntable which weighs 770 lbs, they are introduced in it The same goes for the bulk mass equation.
“Clearaudio hasn’t gone as far as the Rega philosophy in terms of ultra-low mass and low-energy storage, nor have they gone in the other direction, which is ultra-high-quality ‘tables,’” Leerer added.”They choose materials and structures to lower resonance and reveal more low-level information in music.”
Compared to my 66-pound Kuzma Stabi R turntable, the 48-pound Clearaudio Reference Jubilee and its accompanying 9-inch Clearaudio Universal Tonearm are significantly lighter to lift, carry and position, building on the company’s past success.Clearaudio has long been spreading unique techniques and materials up and down their Made in Germany collection, which currently includes 11 turntables, 7 tonearms and 15 cartridges.
Design The Clearaudio design team (footnote 3) employed a variety of design strategies in Reference Jubilee.Limited to 250 units worldwide, the Reference Jubilee is shaped like a boomerang with a Panzerholz base; patented Ceramic Magnetic Bearings (CMB) (according to Clearaudio, which “create the effect of a turntable platter effectively floating on an air cushion” ); Speed ​​of Light Control (OSC); Innovative Motor Suspension (IMS); New Motors; and Updated Jubilee MC Cartridges (not included in Reference Jubilee’s $30,000 price).
“Clearaudio took a holistic approach to their turntable design,” says Leerer.”They share parts between ‘tables, but each is designed as its own independent product to maximize how parts interact in a given turntable.”
I asked Leerer to better understand the metaphorical gears under the Reference Jubilee’s look.First: How does a boomerang turntable improve the sound?
“When you have two parallel surfaces, the energy bounces between the two peripheries and can create resonance or ringing with a high Q factor,” Leerer said.”When the shape is irregular and doesn’t have hard reflective edges, the energy reflection is gentler and doesn’t resonate. For example, a triangle in an orchestra will ring a certain way. But if you modify its shape, it can ring less , and have different characteristics. The idea of ​​a boomerang is that the surface itself reflects less energy.
The slightly curved sides of the Reference Jubilee appear to be finished with a dark finish, but it’s actually a clear coat on the Panzerholz.
“Peter Suchy likes the sound characteristics of Panzerholz for the base and cartridge material because it has a very low Q-factor or resonance. Reference Jubilee uses Panzerholz birch boards sandwiched between two aluminum boards, top and bottom, black anodized and Engraved, with polished, chamfered edges,” says Leerer.”Phenolic resin is used to bond the layers of Baltic birch wood under high pressure, followed by a reddish varnish.”
For Stereophile’s earlier Clearaudio turntable review, Leerer described “inverted ceramic magnetic bearings” – first the “inverted” part: “A traditional bearing descends below the base and the platter acts like a spinning top. An inverted bearing has a bearing shaft that rises up to the base Above, the bearing contact point (sometimes called a thrust pad) is placed directly below the turntable spindle. The argument for an inverted bearing is that it rotates more stably; the argument against it is that it places a potential source of noise – spindle, ball bearing The point of contact with the thrust pads – just below the spindle, so, record. The spindle is usually hardened steel, ball bearing steel, or ceramic, and the thrust pads can be bronze, or a composite material such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, footnote 4 ). As these parts rotate and come into contact with each other, not only vibration noise can occur, but also wear can occur, resulting in increased noise over time. Typically, oil is used to lubricate all parts to reduce friction and wear.”
Now for the “Magnetic” part.“The upper bearing section is magnetically suspended above the lower bearing section, eliminating the need for ball bearings and thrust pads. The spindle is a ceramic material, which has lower friction than steel, so vibration, noise and wear are greatly reduced.” Leerer elaborated in our recent interview: “Multiple ring magnets on the bottom of the upper bearing block create opposing magnetic forces to levitate the platter. By floating the two parts relative to each other, they reduce noise transmission and reduce the potential for friction to allow the platter to spin more freely.” Clearaudio for Ceramic shafts are supplied with synthetic lubricants to further reduce friction.
The upper housing has a sintered bronze bushing precisely mounted on the ceramic shaft.It supports 1.97-inch-tall, 11.2-pound POM platters and 0.59-inch-tall, 18.7-pound metal secondary platters.
Then there’s the aforementioned Optical Speed ​​Control (OSC), where “every three seconds, a sensor on the base reads the platter’s speed through a strobe ring on the bottom of the sub-disk to adjust the speed, primarily from stylus drags,” Notes from the site.Hybrid engine control uses “a 12-bit DAC to generate a motor reference voltage, which is fed into a pure analog motor control, which adjusts the motor voltage through an op amp to instantly adjust to the slightest deviation.” Reference Jubilee’s Hollow, Non-Magnetic, 24V DC Motor Benefit from what Clearaudio calls an innovative Motor Suspension (IMS): The motor is suspended on 18 O-rings (9 above, 9 below), preventing its vibrations from entering the Panzerholz base.
The 9″ Clearaudio Universal tonearm has been updated with Clearaudio Silver internal cables and DIN connectors. The tonearm tube is carbon fiber; the bearing seat, engraved weight assembly/scale, armrest platform, four supplied weights and motor cover are aluminum The threaded shaft of the tonearm is steel. “The carbon fiber tonearm is a variable diameter telescoping design that breaks resonance modes,” Leerer said.
Suzy & Sons’ reinvention of the wheel includes an improved Jubilee MC v2 cart ($6,600), which uses “a separate coil for each channel, which is a hollow core wrapped with gold wire,” explains Leerer.”The coil is balanced on a damped pivot, surrounded by four neodymium magnets for a uniform magnetic flux field. The stylus is a dual polished line contact Clearaudio, called Prime Line, derived from and based on the Swiss Gyger S. The v2 uses Discrete, low-mass coils that contribute to cart speed and soundstage.”
Clearaudio’s 1.6lb Statement Clamp ($1200), 1.5lb Outer Limit Peripheral Clamp and Positioner Edge ($1500) and Professional Power 24V Transformer-Based DC Power Supply ($1200) are included in Jubilee’s $30,000 US retail price.Not included is the tonearm cable.In this review, Musical Surroundings offers one of their own, made by Cardas, based on their Clear Beyond interconnect ($2250).
Setup Like the Clearaudio Concept Active Wood I reviewed in June 2021, the Reference Jubilee’s packaging and manuals are top-notch.Each section is housed in a fitted, dense foam rubber cocoon.An online set-up map shows the location of each part, packed tightly in a cardboard shipping container.A book-sized accessory box contains a pair of white gloves, a ground wire, a spirit level, a screwdriver, five Allen keys, a 285mm x 5mm flat silicone rubber drive belt, and a small bottle of bearing oil.It’s a high-tech table, but it’s easy to set up.
Footnote 2: POM is polyoxymethylene, a strong, hard, hard thermoplastic.Some guitar picks are made with POM.—Jim Austin
Footnote 3: Founders Peter Suchy, sons Robert and Patrick, Head of Manufacturing Ralf Rucker, Stephan Taphorn, Team Leader of the Tonearm Division, and Georg Schönhöfer, Team Leader of the Electronics Division.
That’s great, and Clearaudio’s commitment to vinyl support will last for years to come.I’ve always wanted the Musical Fidelity M1 turntable, but when it first came out, I was always hesitant to get support and service from Musical Fidelity.I’m right; even sourcing a motor is tricky.I can’t imagine you’d have any problems with Clearaudio support.As the comments say, this also sounds great.I should hear it.
The AXPONA 2022 exhibit for this unit and demo was very insightful and beautiful.It proved to many how vinyl records can perform on a par with digital and outperform it on many parameters.
Listening to it with the DS Audio front end is even more of a treat!Would love to hear it in a larger room with the same cutting edge electronics supporting it (Boulder, DS Audio, Sonus Faber, Transparent).Beth Hart’s Led Zep cover is vibrant, transparent and very pure.Maybe another trip to Chicago is for..!
Great review!I would love to see other audio products and racks done in their Panzerholz processing.
I haven’t heard of the DS Audio tape, but have heard it from friends on Facebook and it’s a great tape.I have a lot of auditions in my future.
I wish you the greatest pleasure in your exploration.But you already have so many beautiful turntables and cartridges!Ah, who am I to tell people “no”?have it!
I’ve had so many that I’ve run out of built-in space, but the itch is still there.The biggest investment that has changed my listening experience is the Sugarcube, and I can’t say enough about the little box that finally makes some very old recordings audible.I often want to sell all the watches and tonearms and just buy the last great turntable, but I love them, they all serve different purposes.Had a great time.Great review KM!