Robert J. Reina, December, 2002
There is no better time than now to invest in audiophile-quality vinyl playback gear. I'll bet even Mikey Fremer would be surprised at the amount of new vinyl releases and reissues and used vinyl available to music-lovers today. And the choices available to audiophiles seeking turntables, tonearms, phono cartridges, and phono preamps is greater than it's been in a decade.
As far as cartridges are concerned, I doubt you can beat the high resolution, delicacy, and transparency of today's best low-output moving-coil designs, despite their high prices (as well as those of suitably hi-rez, high-gain phono stages). My choice for some time has been the Koetsu Urushi ($4000), which combines Koetsu's musically rich and seductive midrange with extended, tight, and fast articulation at the frequency extremes.
At the opposite end of the price scale, I've been a big fan of the Grado Reference MM cartridges, which have the natural, evenly balanced timbral presentation of my Koetsu Urushi but with much lower levels of detail resolution, transparency, and transient articulation. The Grado Reference Platinum ($300) and Sonata ($500) remain bargains in today's analog marketplace. (See my reviews of both in the June 1998 Stereophile, Vol.21 No.6.)
I was quite smitten by my current reference in affordable moving-magnet cartridges, the Clearaudio Aurum Beta S ($450), which combines levels of detail resolution, articulation, and transparency that approached those of the more expensive moving-coils, as well as the most neutral tonal balance of any cartridge I've heard. (See my reviews in Vol.23 No.4 and Vol.24 No.6.) Furthermore, the Aurum Beta S, with its metal coupling plate (lead in the original, stainless steel in the current model), far exceeded the performance of the original Aurum Beta with plastic coupling plate ($350) in the areas of bass extension, definition, and high-level dynamics.
So when Clearaudio offered their latest moving-magnet cartridge, the $750 Virtuoso Wood, which they claim provides "enhanced performance with added musicality" compared with the Aurum Beta S, I couldn't wait to give it a spin.
Design
Like the Aurum Beta S, the Virtuoso Wood is a moving-magnet cartridge with a fairly long aluminum cantilever. Clearaudio claims that the design highlight of both models is the matching of very strong magnets with the cantilever-stylus assembly. This is intended to reduce the moving mass of the generator in order to optimize phase coherence and transient characteristics. The primary differences between the cartridges are that the Virtuoso uses a coupling plate of Fenambuk wood instead of stainless steel, which significantly reduces the cartridge's mass (from 10 to 6gm); and stricter tolerances for linearity, frequency response, magnet strength, and trackability. The Virtuoso Wood also offers slightly higher output, at 3.6mV.
Although the Virtuoso Wood's stylus can't be replaced by the user, distributor Musical Surroundings offers complete cartridge replacement when the cartridge is worn or damaged, as well as a trade-up program. The Virtuoso was quite easy to mount and fine-tune on my trusty, affordable analog cartridge review rig: a Rega Planar 3 turntable, Syrinx PU-3 tonearm, and Ringmat Developments Ringmat.
Sound
I was curious to hear how much Clearaudio might have improved on the Aurum Beta S. Sure, the Aurum didn't have the last layer of resolution, articulation, and transparency of the best low-output MCs, but its flat, extended frequency response was beyond reproach: a dead-neutral midrange, pristine and extended highs, and thunderingly clean and tuneful bass. The Beta S's articulation of transients was flawless, as was its ability to portray the subtle dynamic inflections you hear in live music. For this review, I spent a long time revisiting the Aurum Beta S, then switched to the Virtuoso Wood and played the same recordings.
I immediately noticed the Virtuoso Wood's superiority in the midrange, particularly on vocals, both male (Mighty Sam McClain, Give It Up to Love, AudioQuest AQLO1015) and female (Janis Ian, Breaking Silence, Analogue Productions APP027). Voices were reproduced with more detail and delicacy, and had a much richer presentation, with more dimensional body but with no trace of euphonic coloration. I noted superior detail resolution and transient articulation on piano and guitar passages, with improved ambience and air as well as longer decay times. This improvement extended into the high frequencies.
But it was in the highs that a paradox seemed to emerge. The Virtuoso shared the Aurum Beta S's pristine, extended, uncolored high frequencies, but seemed a bit sweeter and airier, with more detail. However, there was no touch of softening or rolloff—in fact, it seemed as if the transient attacks on percussive instruments were faster still, but without a trace of hardness or edge. The Virtuoso Wood's sonic signature seemed a bit more liquid than that of the slightly drier Aurum Beta S, but without a trace of softening, coloration, or loss of detail.
The Virtuoso Wood's performance was consistent at the opposite frequency extreme. Like the Aurum Beta's, the Wood's lower to upper bass was clean, fast, and uncolored, with plenty of bottom-end slam, but with the Virtuoso I could hear more of the textural wood of both electric and acoustic basses in all types of music. My notes from listening to Dean Peer's Ucross (Jazz Planet JP 5002-1): "extended low bass, fast but rich and woody, powerful without being sharp, but delicate, with extended upper harmonics and natural decay."
A quick spin of Classic Records' reissue of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (Columbia/Classic CS 8163) indicated that the Virtuoso Wood may be the affordable cartridge for jazz lovers. Both Davis' trumpet and John Coltrane's tenor sax had bite and tension while sounding silky and sweet. My notes: "more detail, but more relaxed and less analytical, without a trace of coloration." With this recording, I also found myself analyzing the dynamics of Jimmy Cobb's technique of positioning his drumstick on the ride cymbal.
I had a similar experience listening to the bite of Davis' trumpet on "Yesterdays," from the 10" reissue of his Young Man with a Horn (Blue Note/Classic LP 5013). The room disappeared, and the ensemble interplay was dynamic and organic. Finally, I put on Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington (Roulette/Classic SR52074) and studied in detail the interplay of Barney Bigard's clarinet and Trummy Young's trombone in "The Beautiful American."
When I focused on the pitches of the drum skins and the ambient body and decay of each percussion instrument in John Cage's Third Construction, from Pulse (New World/Classic NW319), I was able to follow, without strain, the subtle contrapuntal motifs between pairs of instruments in this revealing and natural recording. The Virtuoso Wood's superb ambience retrieval and soundstaging capabilities made it very easy to hear hall ambience and instrument positions on such well-recorded orchestral blockbusters as Stravinsky's The Firebird (Mercury Living Presence/Classic SR90226) and Mahler's Symphony 2 (Vanguard/Classic VCS 10003). With the Mahler, I can't recall having heard a more natural reproduction of massed strings from a phono cartridge. When I listened to Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony (EMI SLS 5117), I found myself studying the piano's hammers. They sure sounded to me like the hard-polished hammers of the German Renner action found on Steinways made in Hamburg. These recordings convinced me that the Virtuoso Wood may be the affordable cartridge of choice for the lover of classical music.
Rock? The acid test for bombastic bass reproduction is "Behind the Veil," from Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop (Epic OE 44313). In one passage, Tony Hymas plays the melody on a bass synthesizer that descends lower in frequency than Terry Bozzio's thundering bass drum. The Virtuoso Wood reproduced the melody with perfect clarity—fast, tuneful, with no sense of overhang—and left the bass-drum line intact with no trace of muddiness.
Want to break the lease? Try Grandmaster Flash's The Message (Sugar Hill SH-584) at about 100dB. "Hey you youngsters, stop listening to that crap music! You wanna hear some real rap??" The bass-synth-and-drum-machine bombast did not induce my neighbors to call the police, but only by a dB or two. Despite the perfectly articulated dynamics, the subtle, low-level articulations on snare-drum machine were perfectly intact at the rear of the soundstage. So oh, yes, the Virtuoso Wood might be the affordable cartridge of choice for rock headbangers as well. In fact, I think its overall dynamic performance might have exceeded the already outstanding performance of the Aurum Beta S.
I used the magnifying glass of the Virtuoso Wood to compare three pressings of a single album: Gary Wilson's You Think You Really Know Me. With the Virtuoso, it was very easy to hear that the 1991 reissue (Cry Baby BH03) flawlessly replicated the natural, extended tonal balance of the vocals and instruments on the original 1977 release (Gary Wilson GW001). Furthermore, it was clear that the mastering of the 2002 reissue (Motel MRLP007) had boosted the bass a few dB, and that the midrange was now richer and more holographic, along with some compression in highly modulated high-frequency passages compared to the earlier pressings. In general, the Virtuoso Wood tracked difficult, highly modulated HF passages better than any cartridge I've tried, regardless of price.
The Others
After completing my listening, I switched back to the $450 Clearaudio Aurum Beta S. Although its overall character was similar to the Virtuoso Wood's, there were noticeably less detail and subtle dynamic and transient articulations. Although the Beta S had a neutral tonal balance overall, the slightly more liquid quality of the Virtuoso Wood was slightly more rich. Finally, there was just a bit of a mechanical quality to the presentation of the Aurum Beta S as compared with the Virtuoso Wood.
I compared the Virtuoso Wood with another of my affordable favorites, the Grado Reference Sonata ($500). It had been a while since I'd listened to the Sonata, and once again I was struck by its deliciously warm but natural and inviting tonal balance. It had the rich, holographic midrange of the Virtuoso Wood, but resolved somewhat more detail and ambience through that region. However, the high frequencies were far less detailed, extended, and articulate when compared to the Wood's. Bass definition, extension, and dynamic performance at both extremes were excellent through the Grado, but slightly better still through the Virtuoso Wood.
But remember—the Aurum Beta S and the Grado Reference Sonata are both significantly less expensive than the Virtuoso Wood.
The Fat Lady Sings
Did the performance of the Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood exceed my expectations?
Yes, by a significant margin.
Can I think of any under-$1000 cartridge I've tried in my system that I would rather own than the Virtuoso Wood?
No.
Can I find at least one criticism of the Virtuoso Wood?
No. The performance of the Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood was so ear-opening that I recommend that anyone thinking of spending up to $2500 on a moving-coil cartridge consider buying the $750 Wood instead, and investing the money saved in better components elsewhere in the system.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Moving-magnet phono cartridge. Stylus profile: Not specified. Frequency range: 20Hz-20kHz. Output voltage (1kHz, 5cm/s): 3.6mV. Channel separation (1kHz): >30dB. Channel balance (1kHz): <0.2dB. Trackability: >90µm. Recommended tracking force: 2.0-2.5gm. Electrical impedance (1kHz): 660 ohms. Coil inductivity: 0.42mH. Load resistance 47k ohms. Load capacitance: 100pF. Cantilever: aluminum.
Weight: 6.0gm.
Serial number of unit reviewed: V00873.
Price: $750. Approximate number of dealers: 160.
Manufacturer: Clearaudio International, Weberackerweg 10, D-8520 Erlangen, Germany. Tel: (49) 9131-57702. US distributor: Musical Surroundings, 5856 College Ave., Suite 146, Oakland, CA 94618. Tel: (510) 420-0379. Web: www.musicalsurroundings.com.
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: Rega Planar 3 turntable, Syrinx PU-3 tonearm.
Integrated amplifier: Creek 5350SE.
Loudspeakers: Acarian Systems Alón Petite, NHT SB-3.
Cables: Speaker: Acarian Systems Black Orpheus.
Accessories: Various by ASC, Bright Star, Ringmat Developments, Salamander Designs, Simply Physics, Sound Anchor, VPI.—Robert J. Reina