Jason Victor Serinus | Jan 14, 2018
In the room sponsored by distributor Musical Surroundings, I spied Clearaudio’s new Concept Active turntable ($2,600 to $4,400, depending upon choice of three plinths, three tonearms, and three cartridges). The version I saw was $3,200 in black and silver with Concept tonearm and Concept MC cartridge. This all-in-one, ready-to-play system incorporates a high quality internal phono stage and headphone amp.
I took a brief listen through Audeze LCD-3 headphones equipped with standard cabling. Despite a lot of groove noise—it may have been the pressing—and an inability to deliver the bottom octave with the weight it deserved, the Concept Active package did a beautiful job with strings, and delivered a lovely, airy presentation.