The Clearaudio Concept is one of the most interesting and exciting record players to appear for a very long time. For a start even though it is Clearaudio’s budget model in true Clearaudio fashion it is beautifully made with superb engineering evident in every area. One nice touch is the set-up procedure – there isn’t any! Simply remove the unit from the box – take out the packing piece from under the tone arm – plug in and play. All set up is done at the factory in Germany, nothing is left to chance so you are secure in the knowledge that everything is exactly spot on. Maybe that’s why the Concept sounds so good. Another reason might be the unique magnetic tonearm bearing developed by Clearaudio for the Concept. In simple terms in order to perform at its optimum a phono cartridge must be mounted in a stable low friction arm which allows the cartridge to “track” the record groove and obtain the maximum amount of information from that groove – the more legitimate signal information collected the less distortion, noise etc. The Concepts arm floats on a magnetic cushion – there’s no friction to speak of and one of the first things listeners notice is the lack of surface noise - the music emerges from an inky black background. In addition, the overall musical balance is really good, neutral and unfatiguing and yet realistically dynamic – an amazing achievement for a turntable selling for €1195.00 complete.

If you like vinyl and are using something like a Rega 2 or 3 you must come in for an audition of the Concept!