Головки звукоснимателя — Clearaudio CONCERTO V2

Clearaudio in Erlangen builds the Concerto V2 as a gold-coil MC pickup, and the maker now lists its latest revision as the Concerto V2.1. Its body is cut from satiné wood with a metal inlay and a satin finish. The maker points to its low total mass as one reason for placing it in the premier league of moving coil pickups.

Key specs that matter

Output is 0.5 mV at 5 cm/s, and the cartridge impedance is 50 ohm. Frequency range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz, with channel separation of 25 to 30 dB and a channel balance within 0.5 dB. The cantilever is boron and the stylus uses the Prime Line grind from Clearaudio. Tracking ability reaches 80 µm at a recommended downforce of 2.8 g, allowing 0.2 g of variation. Compliance is 15 µ/mN, and the complete cartridge weighs 7.0 g. Clearaudio grants two years of warranty on return of the completed card within 14 days of purchase.

Engineering and use context

Inside, the space in the wooden body holds coils wound from 24 carat gold wire and the patented Clearaudio magnetic circuit, which the company says is found only in its own cartridges. The coils are placed in an absolutely pivot-symmetrical configuration, an approach Clearaudio patents to keep the electrical, mechanical and magnetic parameters of both channels symmetrical. The wooden housing is described as resonance-optimised, and it has a satin surface. Clearaudio pairs the boron cantilever and the diamond as the main contributors to groove tracing on this model.

Pairing

The low output from these low-impedance coils needs an MC-capable phono preamplifier with sufficient gain or a step-up transformer matched to them, as an MM input alone falls short. Whatever arm is used should allow the recommended force to be dialled in precisely, and its geometry should follow the alignment described in the manual. A phono stage offering adjustable MC loading gives room to match the coils.

Alternatives

The Clearaudio Stradivari V2.1 is the neighbouring master class MC with an ebony body stored for months and a twelve-fingered platform inside.