Головки звукоснимателя — Clearaudio GOLDFINGER STATEMENT V2

The Goldfinger Statement V2 is a Clearaudio moving coil cartridge, and its present revision is the Goldfinger Statement V2.1. The body is made of solid 14 carat gold, also described by the maker as 585 gold, which makes it roughly twice as heavy as the brand's seven-gram wooden MC models. The V2.1 update brought a stronger magnet arrangement, a new gold bracket, a revised cantilever and a V engraving on the housing.

Key specs that matter

Output is 0.5 to 0.6 mV at 5 cm/s, and cartridge impedance is 50 ohm. Clearaudio specifies a frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, channel separation above 32 dB and a channel balance within 0.2 dB. The boron cantilever carries a Clearaudio Prime Line diamond with Micro-HD grinding. Tracking ability is 90 µm and compliance 15 µ/mN, at a recommended downforce of 2.8 g plus or minus 0.2 g. Total system weight is about 15.0 g with a 2 g tolerance.

Engineering and use context

The patented Clearaudio MC construction is designed for absolute symmetry of all electrical, mechanical and magnetic parameters, with coils placed in a pivot-symmetrical arrangement. In the V2.1, a newly designed gold bracket holds the magnet block precisely and gives the generator extra geometric stability, and the stronger magnets sit in a special arrangement. The coils use 24 carat gold wire that is 30 percent thinner than before. The Goldfinger Statement V1 was the first cartridge with integrated RF shielding, and the current version keeps that shielding inside the gold body. A newly designed cantilever works at an optimised angle to improve tracking accuracy.

Pairing

The weight of the gold housing is the main constraint when choosing an arm, because the counterweight has to balance a pickup about twice the usual mass and some light arms cannot reach that range. Once balanced, the arm must still apply the full recommended force. Electrically, the Goldfinger behaves like the other gold-coil Clearaudio MC models and asks for a quiet moving coil phono stage with generous gain, or a step-up transformer intended for low-impedance coils.

Alternatives

The Clearaudio Diamond Jubilee MC uses a zirconium oxide body and the same thin gold coil wire and RF shielding at a lower system mass.