Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Sort By: Post DateTitle Publish Date
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Brinkmann Balance 2 (£17,495 (deck), £2895 (tube Psu), £4195 (12.1 Tonearm))
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Dec 22, 2014
A masterpiece of stylish understatement, the flagship Balance 2 uses Brinkmann’s Sinus motor and belt-drive system as a way to update the earlier Balance model. The plinth is CNC-machined from aluminium and supports both arm bases plus the bearing; it sits on three spiked feet adjustable for levelling. The bearing is made of hardened stainless steel and rotates in sintered brass bushings, but it’s unusual in that the assembly is heated by a MOSFET device in order to ensure the bearing operates at a steady temperature. The 90mm platter is machined from a block of aluminium while a polished crystal glass mat is recessed into its top surface.
Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Brinkmann Spyder turntable
Review: Nick Tate, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Apr 01, 2018
hfnoutstanding.pngSporting a unique modular design that accommodates multiple tonearms, a tube-based PSU for the motor and novel heated bearing, this super deck is far from run of the mill

Does the world really need another high-end turntable? That’s the question Brinkmann’s Spyder has to answer, because there’s already a surfeit of fancy vinyl disc spinners sitting pretty in this high value market. This deck needs to be special in some way then, and so it proved. Costing £9795 in basic form, it’s one of two belt-driven decks in the German company’s range of hi-fi separates, sitting alongside the Balance 2 [HFN Jul ’14]. Brinkmann also makes the Bardo and Oasis direct-drive turntables, which themselves are interesting and innovative things.

Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & CartridgesVintage
BSR BDS 80 turntable
Review: Tim Jarman, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Oct 29, 2019
hfnvintageA classic belt-drive turntable from a brand that time forgot, but is this fully-automatic, British-built mid '70s deck still worth seeking out? It's time to put it to the test...

Birmingham Sound Reproducers, or BSR, is a name that's scarcely mentioned in hi-fi circles today. Once the world's largest producer of turntables, the story of this company serves as a reminder of what a tough place the audio market can be.

Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Clearaudio Aurum Beta (£360)
Ed Selley  |  Sep 06, 2011
Some setup curiosities don't detract from a very fine cartridge Handcrafted in its Erlangen factory in Germany, Clearaudio’s products stem from founder Peter Suchy’s aim to offer ‘a complete range of all the necessary things in the reproduction of analogue music’… tonearms, turntables, amps, plugs, cables, records, racks and, of course, phono cartridges. Clearaudio offers an extensive selection of both moving-magnet and moving-coil models, with the reference Goldfinder MC cartridge costing in excess of £7k. Its MM types sit at the other end of the price scale and the Aurum Beta occupies the middle rung of a seven-strong range. Each is offered with a choice of aluminium or satiné wood body materials.
Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Clearaudio Concept (£1100)
Ken Kessler & Paul Miller  |  Jul 15, 2010
If someone had told you, even as recently as 2000, that the market would be overrun with genuinely stunning turntables at sensible prices in 2010, you might have snorted with derision. During the LP’s limbo period of 1985-2005, as it clawed its way back to its current ‘cool’ status, the focus seemed to be on extremely expensive high-end players. That limbo period is now over thanks to CD’s decline, and the black vinyl record is regaining small but steady market share, including crucially an audience amongst those born after CD arrived. Clearaudio has always had affordable turntables for newcomers, but the company created something special with the Concept, one of those rare occasions when the object isn’t merely greater than the sum of its parts: it merits, straight out of the box, a gold star, an Oscar and a Michelin rating.
Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Clearaudio Concept Mc (£530)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Nov 16, 2011
Clearaudio's most affordable moving coil design yet Clearaudio has a range of MM cartridges in its portfolio with price tickets to suit all pockets, but its moving-coils are decidedly high-end. So this new Concept MC is pitched at enthusiasts wanting a delicious moving-coil instead, and one that won’t break the bank. Its body is of aluminium magnesium alloy with a ceramic surface layer; it features a boron cantilever and Micro Line Contact stylus profile, with oxygen-free copper (OFC) coil windings in its generator. The angular body shape with centre line at the front makes it easy to align, threaded holes meaning that you don’t have to fiddle with screws and nuts.
Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Clearaudio Concept Signature
Review: Adam Smith, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Aug 30, 2024
Clearaudio’s entry-level deck for over a decade, the Concept is refreshed with ‘TSC’ (Tacho Speed Control) and speed selection, plus a selection of arms and cartridges

Thanks to the continued resurgence of the vinyl format, enthusiasts can now choose from a good number of plug-and-play turntable packages. Even better, the quality of these complete solutions – once considered a first step on the vinyl ladder for those wanting ease of use, or for whom the dark arts of turntable setup were a terrifying mystery – has been creeping ever higher.

Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Clearaudio Innovation (£11,770)
Steve Harris & Paul Miller  |  Sep 04, 2009
Unruffled by the conflicting diversity of the turntable world, Clearaudio has carefully evolved its own design precepts with little regard for peer pressure or pseudo-technical fashion trends. The result is a model line-up that offers a convincing hierarchy of performance and price. So if you start at the bottom of the Clearaudio Solution range, you can upgrade with a thicker platter, a doubled-up chassis, and so on. You might never reach the top of the line, which is the three-motored, parallel-tracking-armed Master Reference.
Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Clearaudio Jubilee MC Cartridge
Review: Ken Kessler, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Dec 15, 2022
hfnoutstandingCrafted as part of Clearaudio's 40th anniversary celebrations, the Jubilee MC features the brand's proven moving-coil mechanism housed in a 'bullet-proof' jacket

How time flies: Clearaudio was born during the height of analogue playback, survived the arrival of digital, stuck to its guns and is now enjoying the fruits of its loyalty to the vinyl cause. Along with a vast array of record decks, Clearaudio has 16 moving-coil cartridges in its catalogue – yes, sixteen. To mark its 40th birthday, the company has added one more to the middle of the group of MCs, those featuring the distinctive 'flower' top plate as seen on the flagship Goldfinger Statement [HFN Jan '15]. The new Jubilee MC, however, is a third of the Goldfinger's cost at £4460.

Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Clearaudio Master Innovation (£14,500 (black, £15,400); Tonearm £3350; Stand £8000 (black, £8500))
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Dec 22, 2014
While the massive Statement continues as Clearaudio’s very top model, below it in the hierarchy comes this spectacular and impressive new flagship for the main Innovation Series. It is built up on Clearaudio’s familiar, elegant, three-lobed chassis members, each constructed as a sandwich, with a core of Panzerholz (an ‘armour wood’) between two sheets of aluminium. The Master Innovation is in fact built as two separate units with the proprietary multi-platter arrangement facilitating Clearaudio’s magnetic contactless drive system. The upper section is the turntable proper, with a 70mm-thick acrylic platter atop a 15mm stainless steel base platter.
Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Clearaudio Ovation/clarify (£4360 £4610 Depending On Finish)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Oct 21, 2014
New to the Clearaudio line-up this year, this tidy-looking Ovation model sits at the top of its group of turntables that all feature a rectangular plinth. Borrowing from the Innovation range, the Ovation nonetheless brings several new technologies of its own into play. The plinth is made of aluminium layers sandwiching a layer of Panzerholz ply. (This is is claimed to offer considerable sonic gains over such alternatives as acrylic and standard wood.
Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Clearaudio Performance 'black Pearl' (£2300)
Ken Kessler & Paul Miller  |  Jun 04, 2009
Only a fool – in these harsh times – would suggest that £2300 for a complete analogue package is a budget outlay. But judged in context, that amount spent on Clearaudio’s Performance turntable, Satisfy Carbon Directwire arm and Maestro Wood moving-magnet cartridge seems like a gift. After all, the tonearm on its own costs £870, while the cartridge sells for £645. Thus the Performance – sold only with the arm and cartridge – accounts for a mere £785 of the total package price.
Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Clearaudio Reference Jubilee Turntable
Review: Adam Smith, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Nov 03, 2022
hfnoutstandingStill featuring the iconic V-shaped plinth, this Jubilee update on Clearaudio's inaugural Reference deck features a Panzerholz plinth and magnetically-assisted ceramic bearing

Bunting must surely be in short supply. Along with the Royal Jubilee, we had SME officially celebrating its 60th birthday while Nagra rolled out the cake for its 70th – and now Clearaudio has released a product to celebrate its '40 years of excellence' (an anniversary that actually fell in 2018, but product delays are nothing new). The good news is that the result is the £17,500 Clearaudio Reference Jubilee turntable; the bad news is that production is limited to 250 units worldwide.

Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Continuum Obsidian/Viper Turntable/Arm
Review: Ken Kessler, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Dec 11, 2019
hfncommendedContinuum's third LP-spinning package, the Obsidian and Viper, departs from the template of its vacuum-equipped predecessors. Can the brand do 'conventional'?

Looks can be deceiving, especially if you first see a Continuum Obsidian turntable and Viper arm fully-assembled. Its three-legged, dust-coverless design recalls innumerable open-plan decks from affordable up to high-five-figure absurdity. Then you note the Continuum's price tag and realise it's of the latter: the Obsidian sells for £39,998, the Viper £11,998. Generously, you can save a grand buying the pair for £49,998.

Continue Reading »
From the VaultTurntables, Arms & Cartridges
Cor, Lumley!
Peter J Comeau  |  Sep 11, 2024
hfnvintageWhat could match a Lumley Stratosphere turntable better than Lumley’s LM2 speakers and PS2/M250 pre/power amps, says Peter J Comeau

It was back in the March 1996 issue of Hi-Fi News that I took my first look at the £6250 Stratosphere ST1 – a turntable that proved out of this world in sound quality as well as name. Now John Jeffries of Reference International (the name behind both the Strat and Lumley) has delivered a complete system including the £4500 LM2 loudspeakers.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X