Turntable Reviews

In midsummer 2022, I reviewed the German-made Clearaudio Reference Jubilee turntable, a $30,000 vinyl virtuoso that played music with clear-headed realism, brain-opening transparency, and lifelike speed and dynamics. Its performance was nothing short of exhilarating. It was one of the top three turntables I had ever laid my ears upon.

Of the Reference Jubilee I opined, "The Reference Jubilee's sound combined vivid detail retrieval, forceful dynamics, a delicate, refined top end, and a translucent midrange. [It] combined staggering detail, energy, and forward-flow allied to a 3D stage that was large, deep, and transparent. The music it made was profound and life-affirming."

I had earlier assessed Clearaudio's Concept Active Wood turntable, which was priced at $3700 or $4600, depending on the tonearm and cartridge configuration. Despite its humbler origins, it possessed a charm all its own, moving me to write: "The Clearaudio Active Wood with the Satisfy CF tonearm and the Concept MC cartridge was clear, dynamic, rhythmic, and transparent; the combo excelled at playing black discs with detail and quiet backgrounds, with a large soundstage populated with well-sized images. ... The sound was refined, lucid, and precise. ... The Active Wood's fine transparency and surgical (but not clinical) resolution cast each 10" in its own unique mien."

The consistent sonic thread here is that Clearaudio's house sound, whether from the affordable to the mortgage-busting, is one of refinement, lucidity, clarity, precision, and quietness. Which brings us to the Clearaudio Signature turntable, a joint offering from Clearaudio GmbH and its US distributor, Musical Surroundings.

Available in two packages, the Clearaudio Signature is a special edition of the new Concept Signature turntable, created exclusively for the US market. Pricing is as follows. Package 1: Clearaudio Signature turntable ($2600 by itself) with Clearaudio Tracer Black Carbon Fiber tonearm ($3300 separately) and Clearaudio Professional Power 12V outboard power supply ($800 separately): $5000. This was the package that was supplied for this review. Package 2: Clearaudio Concept Signature with new Clearaudio Signature Black Carbon Fiber tonearm ($2500 separately) also with the outboard power supply: $4000. Both packages are available in black/black or black/silver edition finishes. For an extra $500, customers can order the Baltic birch plinth upgrade consisting of pressure-formed, solid wood finished in light or dark stained wood.

"The Signature turntable celebrates Clearaudio's 46-year anniversary and Musical Surroundings' 33 1/3 years in analog distribution," states the Musical Surroundings website. "The Signature combines the technological and material science advancements from the entire Clearaudio turntable line, highlighted by the Professional 12V DC coreless motor with new speed control circuitry derived from the Reference Jubilee turntable."

Design
The Signature turntable stands 16.5" wide × 13.7" deep × 4.9" high, including tonearm, and weighs 16.5lb, though it feels heavier. The turntable's tubular bandmate, the Clearaudio Professional Power Supply, measures 2.87" wide, 2.99" high, and 5.7" deep, and weighs 2.2lb, making for an easy fit either next to the turntable or on an adjacent shelf. Three clear, nublike rubber feet held it firmly in place on my Pangea rack.

For $2600, a turntable should look as good as it sounds. And where looks and functionality meet, the Signature looks terrific, understated, and would appear to work flawlessly. Its $2600 is well apportioned. Where some Euro-made 'tables in this price range look like Brutalist monoliths, clunky retro toys, or worse, flimsy machines not designed to last longer than your dog's lifetime, the Signature—the entire Clearaudio line for that matter—is attractively designed, in my opinion, cosmetically and mechanically.

The design echoes of the Reference Jubilee and the Concept Active are reflected in the Signature. Refined touches, such as the smoothly rounded corners, the plinth's resistance to fingerprints, the tactile operation of the cueing function, and the intuitive simplicity of the illuminated pushbutton interface, made the Signature a joy to operate.

The Signature's plinth features constrained-layer construction, which is said to minimize vibrations. Its base is available in medium-density fiberboard or solid Baltic birch, the latter layered and bonded under high pressure. A satined plastic layer on top and a medium-density wood fiber layer on bottom, these joined by damping adhesive, is claimed to further enhance vibration control within the plinth.

Clearaudio calls the Signature a "resonance-optimized turntable," evidenced by a suspension system dubbed "IMS" for improved motor suspension, technology derived from the Jubilee turntable. The Signature's new AiR coreless motor is decoupled from the plinth by six rubber O-rings to improve vibration control. Clearaudio claims further isolation from the 'table's three adjustable leveling feet, all in service of controlling resonances.

The Signature features a 1.18", 5lb platter made from the thermoplastic polyoxymethylene (POM; brand name Delrin), which is mounted on a 6.5" wide × ¼ " high, CNC-machined aluminum subplatter. A flat polished belt drives the subplatter. The platter bearing is constructed of a hardened steel shaft within a sintered bronze sleeve with a Teflon thrust pad. The Signature is meant to be used without a mat, as I've seen with other 'tables that use platters made of Delrin, a material similar to vinyl.

Trickle-down tech from Clearaudio's Reference Jubilee and Master Jubilee turntables appears in the Signature's Tacho-Speed-Control, or "TSC," which "constantly monitors the rotational speed and provides real-time feedback to the control electronics, enabling the system to immediately respond to dynamic influences such as stylus drag, belt tension, friction, or temperature," stated the Clearaudio website. "TSC performs automatic speed calibration at every start" and can be operated manually as well.

"[TSC] is connected to the belt and monitors the speed using an electronic reference comparator circuit," Musical Surroundings' Garth Leerer explained. "It's a less expensive implementation than that used in the Reference Jubilee."

"These advancements in speed accuracy and sound quality are made possible with the AiR 12V DC coreless motor," stated a Musical Surroundings press release. "It offers superior performance due to its low inertia, thus allowing high acceleration rates with no cogging torque. DC coreless motors were developed for use in demanding high-tech applications including robotics, radar, medical imaging, and now, high precision turntables."

The Signature is available with two different tonearms. The review sample was fitted with a 9" Clearaudio Tracer Black Carbon arm. The 9" Clearaudio Signature Black Carbon Fiber tonearm, released in April 2024, is also available. Both tonearms feature black carbon fiber armtubes, underslung stainless steel counterweights ("providing an optimal center of gravity and allowing fine adjustment of the tracking force," from the Clearaudio website), with aluminum headshells, baseplates, and antiskate dials.

"[The tonearms] use handmade Swiss vertical and lateral bearings, adopted from the watch industry, incorporating polished tungsten points against sapphire thrust pads," noted a Clearaudio press release. "The magnetic anti-skating force is mechanically decoupled and easily adjustable."

"Magnets are set into the arm bearing housing with another magnet in a thumb screw (Signature) or dial mechanism (Tracer) with dynamic anti-skate, thus providing more bias force as the arm pivots toward the spindle," Leerer wrote.

The differences between the Signature and Tracer tonearms, priced at $2500 and $3300, respectively, are considerable. Beyond differences in headshell material, construction, and employment of antiskate, a Clearaudio white paper stated that "the Tracer bearing uses tungsten points in a sapphire thrust plate for vertical motion, ball bearing for horizontal; the Signature Black Carbon Fiber uses tungsten points in a sapphire thrust plate for its horizontal and vertical bearing." Regarding counterweights, "the Tracer uses a decoupled, dropped offset counterweight, placing mass on the same plane as the stylus in the groove. The Signature Black Carbon Fiber uses a decoupled counterweight with manual adjustment on a threaded shaft."

The final element in the Musical Surroundings Signature package is the Clearaudio Professional Power outboard power supply, which powers the Signature AiR motor and electronics. "The Professional Power supply uses a vibration-damped, toroidal transformer in conjunction with stiff regulation, providing clean power to the AiR motor," stated a press release.

A discrete rocker switch on the rear of the power supply summons the unit to life, its presence reflected in a blue LED on the front. A plump, 1.5" wide, tapered dial atop the plinth presides over the platter's speed, a single press coaxing it into 33 1/3rpm, a second to 45rpm. A halo of blue light encircles the button when energized, a sensual design flourish that signals completeness, at least to me.

Around back of the Signature, a master power switch, and input for the power supply. Interconnects are hardwired from headshell-to-RCA termination—no RCA output jacks here.

The Signature, like its Clearaudio brethren, is a tactile delight to use. Its matte-finish, dark gray surface is practically a Clearaudio standard. Every detail, from the smooth finished plinth to the precision of the user controls, is a testament to craftsmanship. Purely as a user experience, it's an indulgence, a small audiophile luxury in a world of mass-produced mediocrity.