We welcome Clear audio’s sleek new Performance DC turntable
package into the world. Does it live up to its name?
This new clear audio Performance DC straddles two worlds;
it’s a high end package that bundles three of the respected German vinyl
specialist’s products – which you’re quite at liberty to buy separately – into
one. It starts with what is by any standards a beautifully finished aluminum
plinth, inside which is a sandwich of more aluminum and highly compressed wood
fiber. The idea is that by having different materials, the resonant frequency
isn’t cent red around one particular point, which then colors the sound. The
result is a substantial deck, but one that’s compact and cleanly styled. Indeed,
I think it looks fabulous, and reminds me very much of classic Braun products
from the sixties penned by the ‘moister of minimalism’ himself, Dieter Rams.
Clearaudio
Performance DC
Still, this deck is more than just a pretty plinth; it
sports a high-quality DC motor built into the chassis, similar to that used in
Clear audio’s higher-end decks. It drives the inner platter by a short, taut,
flat profile belt – no Michel-style circumferential round-section ‘cords’ here!
This system gives a nice tight grip on the rotation of the platter, and makes
for a relatively fast switch-on. A series of illuminated press buttons select
the speed, and at start up there’s little of the histrionics that some belt
drives display when trying to spool up to the correct speed – it is a smooth
and painless affair. The platter itself is a 40mm-thick black Polyoxymethylene
design, which looks and feels quite like a big slice of vinyl; it’s not
resonant to the touch and is decently massy without putting the motor’s life
expectancy at risk. This sits on Clear audio’s patented ceramic magnetic
bearing (CMB), which by using a magnetic field to effectively float the bearing
on air, reduces friction, wear and noise by avoiding any point of load, the
company claims. Certainly the deck platter runs very smoothly.
It’s a million
miles away from the shrill squawking of some cheaper turntables
The Performance DC package comes as standard with the new
Clear audio Clarify 9 in tone arm (available separately for $1,527.1), which
uses a silver-colored woven carbon-fiber arm tube. It’s tipped off at one end
with an aluminum head shell, while at the other there’s a rather neat
counterweight that lets you dial in tracking force very accurately. However, I
do find the overhang of the arm behind the bearing housing a little longer than
normal, and I’m not sure if this is desirable, at least from an aesthetic point
of view.
The arm also sports a magnetic bearing, which is claimed to
eliminate bearing noise entirely. It is fully adjustable, with vertical
tracking angle, azimuth, and (magnetically applied) anti-skating as cartridge
down force. It’s a nice enough thing to look at, setup and use, although still
feels fiddly compared to – say – an SME 309. The protruding arm cable looks
ugly, but then again I did like the center detent right above the pivot point
into which a clear audio alignment protractor can be slotted, to give really
swift one-spot positioning of the cartridge in the head shell. Again, it’s not
as neat as an SME, but it’s better than a Rega for example.
Clearaudio’s
beautifully built Clarify tone arm is available separately for $1,527.1
Last but not least in the box is Clear audio’s Virtuoso v2
MM cartridge ($1,044.9 separately). This is interesting because it is that most
rare of beasts in the analogue jungle, a high-end moving magnet. Endowed with a
resonance-optimized ebony body, it sports an aluminum cantilever working with
matched coils and high-efficiency magnets. It gives an output voltage of 3.6mV
(claimed), which is pretty healthy, and tracks best at around 2.2g. The
cartridge itself is a relatively light 6g, and it’s beautifully finished as you
might expect at its price. Overall then, the entire package is nice to use,
beautifully finished and befits its $4010.7 asking price. So far so good, but
how does it sound?
