Фонокорректоры — Clearaudio ABSOLUTE PHONO

The Absolute Phono is an MC phono stage made by Clearaudio of Erlangen, which the company introduced as the first MC phono stage built around an active headshell. Part of the amplification sits right at the cartridge, and the rest lives in two matching aluminium boxes - one for the RIAA stage and one for the power supply. The European price was EUR 13,500, and units were offered in silver or black aluminium.

Key specs that matter

Gain is 60 dB at 1 kHz, and RIAA equalisation follows the standard curve with a deviation of no more than 0.1 dB. Signal-to-noise ratio is 90 dB A-weighted, channel separation reaches 100 dB, and total harmonic distortion stays below 0.001 %. The signal arrives through a D-Sub input, and the outputs come as balanced XLR with 64 ohm output impedance and unbalanced RCA with 32 ohm. A switching supply accepts 100 to 265 V AC at 50 or 60 Hz, consumption is 3.2 W in operation and 0 W when off. Both chassis measure about 240 x 160 x 65 mm, and they weigh around 3.25 kg for the preamplifier and 3.20 kg for the supply. Clearaudio gives five years of warranty with registration.

Engineering and use context

A tiny circuit board mounted in the tonearm headshell boosts the very small cartridge output where it is generated. The fragile signal thus travels only a few millimetres before amplification, instead of the one to two metres of internal and external arm wiring it would normally cover. The stronger signal then goes to the main RIAA stage over a path without the usual relays and coupling capacitors. Clearaudio uses current amplification at the input, and this is why no load resistance or load capacitance has to be chosen for the cartridge - the optimum operating condition is set automatically. The casework is an anti-resonance sandwich machined from solid aluminium blocks combined with panzerholz. Hand-selected non-magnetic silver Glimmer capacitors from Clearaudio are fitted at key points of the circuit, and the supply in its own chassis keeps mains interference away from the audio boards. A single switch handles On, Off and Mute.

Pairing

Clearaudio states that the Absolute Phono works with all of its own tonearms and with any moving-coil cartridge regardless of brand, so a low-output design such as the Clearaudio Stradivari V2 or Talisman V2 Gold is a natural match. The active headshell and the D-Sub link take the place of a normal RCA phono cable. The XLR output suits preamplifiers or integrated amplifiers with balanced line inputs.

Alternatives

The Clearaudio Statement Phono is a far larger two-chassis phono preamplifier with an output voltage above 12 V, a 12 kg amplifier unit and a 22 kg power supply.