Turntable Reviews

Setup
The Signature's low weight made for a simple setup on a newly acquired Pangea rack. While my oft-used Kuzma Platis 54 platform worked well for heavier turntables, AV RoomService Ltd.'s Equipment Vibration Protectors (EVP) proved a better match under the Signature's three feet, offering adequate isolation and a more grounded sound. I didn't use the turntable's adjustable feet; they didn't extend sufficiently to deal with the off-pitch floors of my 100-year-old building.

Fine-tuning the tonearm was a straightforward affair. VTA was adjusted by manipulating a recessed grub screw in the tonearm base. Azimuth was spot-on from the factory, requiring no further intervention from the large nut near the headshell. The pre-installed counterweight featured a user-friendly dial on the tonearm's butt end, allowing for careful adjustment, frankly, one of the best VTF adjustments I've ever seen. After setting antiskate using the small magnetic dial which offers three placement settings for minimum, medium, or maximum antiskate based on tracking force, I was good to go.

Listening
I've amassed a large collection of Beatles European and Japanese EPs and 45rpm singles since the early 1990s. It's a peculiar obsession, given their relative affordability compared to other vinyl obsessions. Each country's early mono Beatles singles offer a distinct sonic character, a testament to the era's localized production methods. In those formative years, EMI/Parlophone would provide a tape to individual countries, where engineers would craft unique mixes tailored to local tastes (footnote 1).

Spinning these mono Beatles singles on the Clearaudio Signature turntable, with the Tracer Black Carbon Fiber tonearm equipped with an Ortofon MC Quintet mono cartridge, was a revelatory sonic adventure. The Clearaudio allowed each mix, each sonic artifact, to reveal its unique character. From novel mix elements—unexpected hand claps, curious reverb/compression choices—to unearthed instrumental and vocal colors, the Signature brought these early Beatles singles to life with a clarity and depth I had never experienced, leaving me gobsmacked, my attention intensified.

"There's a Place" (British Parlophone GEP.8882) jumped out of the Voxativ Ampeggio loudspeakers with a great sense of rhythmic drive and pop, a primitive throbbing of instruments and voices. The iconic guitar riff of "Paperback Writer" (Italian EMI Odeon MEO 119), played by Paul McCartney on an Epiphone Casino, resonated with thick tone and deeper reverb. The droning guitars of "Rain" (Italian EMI Odeon MEO 119) were hypnotic; the driving unison bass and guitars of "Day Tripper" (Italian EMI Odeon MEO 107) were joined to crisp, fat drums and a visceral sense of punch, like Frankenstein's monster coming to life. This was the sound of The Beatles playing over the car radio of my dad's 1965 Mercury Comet that electrified me as a child, even though those were the Dave Dexter mixes, generally considered the worst of the worst. Via the European singles and the Clearaudio Signature/Ortofon MC Quintet, The Beatles' kinetic sound, in mono, on 45, was unleashed and revitalized, a pure thrill. The Signature proved its mettle as a graceful yet powerful machine, with transparency and flow its bywords.

One oddity: Regardless of 33 1/3 or 45rpm, I occasionally had to give the platter a little nudge to get it going, I know not why. Verified by the RPM speed checker app on my iPhone 14 Pro, the Signature ran very slightly slow, at 33.09rpm. Better a little slow than a little fast, however (footnote 2). Deeper tones are more amenable than pitched-up vocals, etc., in my experience.

Switching out the Ortofon mono cart for the Hana Umami Blue MC supplied for this review, the wonderful world of stereo returned. Coming from the blast furnace sounds of the Beatles' mono 45s to newfangled stereo was a bit of a bring down, like someone knocked the wind out of the system. A little volume helped, as it always does, to evaluate the Clearaudio/Hana setup spinning the 2024 50th Anniversary Edition of Frank Zappa's Apostrophe (') (Zappa Records ZR20046-1, UMe 00602465639865), freshly remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original, Dolby encoded, ¼" stereo analog master tapes. The two-disc set includes the original Apostrophe (') in a glistening mix, and an additional disc of live versions of Apostrophe (') material, mastered by Bob Ludwig and John Polito with "hi-rez" transfers by Joe Travers.

This new Apostrophe (') pressing epitomizes "audiophile" in all its vagaries. Zappa's trademark, complex arrangements, deranged lyrics, and corroded guitar solos were apparent as never before, nailed to my forehead like a water cannon showering my skull. The music expanded well beyond the speakers, and every detail, from drummer Ralph Humphrey's buzz rolls to Tina Turner's soulful wail, was beautifully revisioned. But I missed the down and dirtiness of my beaten OG copy. I missed the earth, the 1970s sound of instruments and vocals piled together in a dark heap. But I wowed at the sheer sonic force of the Zappa remaster, and the Signature's pristine representation of this cleanly remastered album.

At this point, the Clearaudio Signature had acquitted itself well. It conveyed the force and punch of early '60s rock'n'roll, in mono, no less, and sweetly resolved the ultra hi-rez modern remastering in thoroughly natural, musical, and I-want-to-hear-more ways. Its overall demeanor or sonic footprint was well balanced, judicious, and see-through. It never failed to recreate music with rhythmic acuity, yet it also performed the finer things: resolution, refinement, discernment, layering, and scale. The Signature's grand sense of quietness created a distinct, time-traveling journey in business class with all its amenities, if not first class. My flying seat didn't fold out into a comfy bed with cocktails and slippers, but it certainly made me a high-flying sonic guru, fully blissed on tiny booze bottles and peanuts, in love with all around me.

Changing cartridges
The Signature is a formidable turntable. How would it fare mounted with one of the most iconic MC cartridges ever, the Denon DL-103R, now produced in collaboration with Devon Turnbull of Ojas as the Denon DL-103o? One problem: the DL-103o weighs 8.5gm, lighter than the Hana Umami Blue at 10gm or the Ortofon MC Quintet Mono at 9gm. Though it's not standard audiophile practice, I Blu-Tacked a weight on top of the headshell of the Tracer tonearm to get the '103o to its recommended tracking force of 2.5gm.

The DL-103o's richness, high color saturation, and vibrant personality were in full force through the Signature/Tracer combo, perhaps better organized than on my long-gone Kuzma Stabi Stogi turntable, with Clearaudio's trademark refinement and orderliness fully evident.

Conclusion
At the price point of $5000, the Clearaudio Signature with the Tracer tonearm and Professional Power Supply competes with Michell's Gyro SE, Technics' SL-1200G-S, Music Hall's MMF-11.3, Rega's Planar 8, even with my old Kuzma Stabi Stogi "pipe bomb"—all exceptional 'tables in their own way. In conclusion, we can say Clearaudio has achieved something special with the Signature/Tracer package, a system that held my rapt attention throughout the dozens of records I played on it, using different cartridges, phono stages, and speakers, not all of which I had the space to report on here.

The Signature is one of the few turntables I could live with long-term (along with my vintage Thorens TD 124), its clean precision, sensuous refinement, and sleek sense of drive making it a high-value component, one that created high art with every record it encountered.

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Footnote 1: See columbia.edu/~brennan/beatles/var-1963.html.

Footnote 2: The iOS RPM turntable speed accuracy app states it is accurate to "within 0.1% of the target RPM" and if the phone's gyro is not perfectly calibrated, there will be more drift.—Mark Henninger, managing editor.