Clearaudio Evolution

Posted by: Top Cat on 21 July 2001

ANyone know anything about this turntable, and how it stacks up against such things as a fully-loaded LP12 or P9?

My dealer stocks it, but I haven't had a chance to hear it yet and want to find out if it's worth auditioning, or if it's more style than substance...

John

Posted on: 21 July 2001 by Andrew Randle
John,

Give Clearaudio a try, I think I suggested it a while ago.

Have you yet tried?

1) Roksan Xerxes X
2) Michell Gyrodec

Give 'em a whirl.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

Posted on: 22 July 2001 by Top Cat
Mr Pig, I'm demoing them both at L&C Edinburgh next Saturday - fancy coming along as an 'alternative' opinion???

John

PS. Rumour has it that the new P9 is going to be significantly better still. And my insurance company will pay! Happy day!

Posted on: 22 July 2001 by Top Cat
I've heard a Xerxes which I liked the sound of - don't recall the details, but I've never been impressed with the Gyrodec, although my dealer stocks it - will get an audition of that as well, mind, just in case my previous experiences have been 'off days' for that deck...

John

Posted on: 22 July 2001 by Andrew Randle
Here's something useful that you might like to bear in mind, to aid you during the demo:

The old phrase "a badly set-up Gyrodec sounds like a planar 3".

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

Posted on: 22 July 2001 by Top Cat
Last time I heard the Gyro it had an SME V on it with some fairly exotic but unremarkable cartridge - it was at a shop called Music Mill (which has subsequently gone under but is resurfacing like a phoenix from the ashes as I write this) which specialised in the very high end - Krell, Living Voice horns, etc. etc. - and I was supposed to be impressed - top end deck, etc. - but it sounded so cold and clinical - lots of detail but no soul.

John

Posted on: 23 July 2001 by Frank Abela
John

You must be talking about Clearaudio.:)

We've just upgraded a customer's deck to the newfangled DC motor - it improves the timing a heckuva lot. I'd agree that the standard Gyro with plug-in-wall power supply has real problems in the timing department. The QC power supply improves on that (some but not all the way). The new QV is substantially better. Still not in LP12/P9 league, but pretty good nonetheless.

RB-series arms really don't suit. However, we have tried a rewired RB300 for a very worthwhile improvement. The rewire (which I have had done to my Mechanic) is available from Mike at Moth and retails for around £130 all-in. It makes a massive difference to a RB300. Haven't tried it on a 600 or 900, but we would like to since the difference is so big, it isn't even funny.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.