Review from Marc Glass, Holland ·

After a very pleasant (Email) conversations with Pete I ordered the Clarity ’09 with a Rega RB1000 tonearm. After a few upgraded RB250’s and 300’s on basic turntables (Basis Audio 1400 and Clearaudio Champion among others) I decided it was time for a major upgrade. After a week the Clarity arrived and replaced my Clearaudio Champion. For a while I had been considering to upgrade my clearaudio to the next level with lager feet, platter and spindle, but the outlay was nearly as much as the Clarity/Rega combination. What attracted me to the Clarity was the simple and attractive design, the 2 motor design and the craftmanschip of every part of the turntable. On internet this is hard to see, but the details showed on the site of the parts does give you a clue.

When it arrived at first the Clarity arrived without the RB1000. This was a nice opportunity to first let the Clarity run in for a while and hear the difference with the Clearaudio Champion. For a while I have been listening with a Musicmaker cartridge. What I love about this cartridge is that it sounds quite natural and has a wide soundstage. The Clarity had clearly more authority than the Clearaudio and expanded the qualities of the Musicmaker cartridge.

The Clarity is a mass turntable. There is no suspension system and for some reason this worried me. Although most suspension systems give a too colored sound for my taste. Mass turntables tend to be a bit over brite and on the other hand also give a massive and forward sounding. Normally the motor is assembled apart from the chassis, because of resonance from the motor. Every motor has a slight resonance, which is multiplied by the cartridge and phonoamp as much as 5000 times in the case of a MC phonoamp. This turntable has even two motors! Placed on the base.

After the Rega RB1000 arrived. The serious listening with the Clarity could begin. It sounded as I expected from such a turntable and even better. At first listening the turntable sounded terrific compared by the Clearaudio Champion. The Clarity sounded much more informative and musical. The sound was much more forward, clear and at the same time softer, without getting overbright. This shows that the design is good. This is a turntable to stay. Playing music is very enjoying with the Clarity. Because of the design, I could not help feeling it could sound better.

Recently I tried some resonance control spacers from fo.q. It is a small Japanese company which have specialized in resonance control and is reasonable affordable. The spacer is made from the latest material, consisting of a composite of layers of three different types of polymer hybrid damping material, and an additional layer of glass fiber on the interior.

The spacers perform very well with the Clarity at absorbing unnecessary vibration from the turntable, making the sound more alive and less analytical.

I also tried a turntable mat from fo.q with the same result. All together the Clarity is not only a star in clarity, but also in musicality with these "upgrades". Then I went one step further. The massive feet have a bit strange design. Normally the spike is facing down, to lead the resonance into a rack or at least away from the turntable. The spikes are facing upward on the Clarity, which in theory means the resonance from the base of the turntable cannot escape through the feet, but also is fed by resonance from a rack through the feet.

I checked this out by placing Shun Mook Super Diamond Resonance feet under the base of the Clarity. The Dhun Mooks are the same size as the original feet. The Shun Mook are made of ebony wood and tuned to draw away resonance from a device placed on top of it. This design contains a large volume of ebony reservoir for filtering distortions while the natural diamond allows for the instantaneous escape of unwanted vibrations. The resonating properties of this ebony when excited by the electromechanical energy will enhance the musical quality of its audio reproduction. Using these instantly expanded the sound staging and increased separation. Tonal balance of the music is much richer and hence a major step of improvement.

These feet not only look beautiful; they also do beautiful things for the sound. I tried them under my Musical Fidelity amp as well as under the CD player. In all cases the improvements were clear: more open mids with more liveliness, but importantly, without added aggressiveness or loss of fluidity. The treble became more open and airy but remained absolutely fluid and stress-free. I definitely liked them under the Clarity. For sure, the Shun Mooks made for better speed, detail and dynamics but I kind of like the Clarity for its relaxed nature and I felt that these feet enhanced that character. I found that they made good LP's sound even better while bad LP's sounded worse that is a bit of a downfall. Nevertheless: highly recommended for Clarity owners! The Clarity comes with a beautiful made clamp to hold down the records. I read this design is, although beautiful made, not very effective. With the fo.q mat the clamp holds down the record beautifully and is easy to use. Without a damping mat I would look further for a more effective clamp.

Although I am very pleased with the Clarity and it sounds very good. I do have some small points of attention in which the Clarity can improve (power supply, power cable, Damping of the base, height adjustability of the "feet" and reversing the spikes. Otherwise the Clarity is a beautiful sounding turntable which will outperform all at the same price, I am sure.

My music system:

• Clarity '09 turntable, with Rega RB1000 tone arm, Musicmaker III cartridge
• Audiostatic Wing full range electrostatic loudspeakers
• Musical fidelity A5 integrated amplifier
• Van Medevoort SA450 (SA)CD player
• Kimber Kable select KS1030 interlink between amplifier and cd player
• NBS Active II power cable for the amplifier
• NBS Active IV power cable for the cd player
• Anti-cable speaker cable
• Shun Mook Super Diamond Resonators (turntable)
• Shun Mook Ultra Diamond Resonators (Amplifier)
• Fo.Q G51 and 53F resonance insulators, TA102 and TA52 damping tape and RS912 Turntable mat and cartridge damping tape

Marc Glass - The Netherlands