Country of Origin
This review first appeared in January 2025 on fairaudio.de. By permission of the author, it is hereby syndicated from the German original to reach a broader English audience. Ed.
Reviewer: Tobias Zoporowski
Analogue sources: Drive: Technics SL-1210GR Pickup: Shelter 201 MM, Pro-Ject Concorde Pick-it S1 MM; Other: Tuner Sansui T-80 & Kenwood KT-5500; Phonostage: Lehmann Audio Black Cube Statement
Digital sources: Pioneer N-50, Marantz NA 8005
Integrated amplifier: Magnat RV-3
Speakers: Magnat Quantum 905, Teufel Theater 500S
Cables: inakustik loom plus Eagle Cable and WIreworld
Review component retail: €3'950
Foxy axe. At this point Al Di Meola probably needs no introduction. Even our insular hifi scene has been hip to this celebrated Jazz and fusion guitarist for decades. And that's not only due to his varied playing styles but always superbly mastered sonically excellent recordings. Who doesn't know the live album Friday Night in San Francisco with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía? As part of Munich High End 2023 whose organizers signed Di Meola as ambassador for better sound, the Clearaudio team of Robert Suchy launched a special edition of turntables to honour famous influential musicians. To kick off this "Celebrity Edition" they had picked Al Di Meola who at the Munich show proved enthusiastic about the idea, even made suggestions. Clearaudio based the body of the turntable limited to 1'000 units worldwide (our sample was #33) on the shape of Di Meola's favourite guitar, a Gibson electric Les Paul Custom. Anyone who has followed the American's career over the decades knows that he almost exclusively plays this famous model which in various incarnations became a staple in the history of Jazz, Blues and Rock. The fact that his Les Paul Custom has sold since 1954 when Al Di Meola was born is probably pure coincidence. In any case, you can't tell the age of either music legend.
The distinctively shaped frame of the Clearaudio Celebrity Al Di Meola Edition is achieved with highly compressed fibres with a bottom steel plate, plastic cover plate and in our sample rosewood veneer not high-gloss black lacquer all resting on three height-adjustable feet. Clearaudio include a small spirit level to ensure the base sits perfectly horizontal. The 30mm acrylic platter runs on an aluminium sub-platter which in turn drives via flat belt off a motor. To isolate vibrations from it, six rubber O-rings survey reliable decoupling. When fitting the flat belt similar to a car engine's V-belt not only driving the alternator but via pulleys a power steering or air conditioning system, the Clearaudio belt not only runs over the motor pulley but also across a slightly smaller nipple. That communicates with the speed controller. Dubbed Tacho Speed Control by the Erlangen company, it monitors and regulates platter speed in real time and is supposed to also compensate for changes in belt tension or ambient temperature. It is therefore important to guide the belt over the deflection nipple which can be a bit fiddly. If you fail, the platter will run much too fast. A knob selects 331/3 and 45rpm and visually models a rotary control of the famous Les Paul Custom guitar. This also puts the record player in standby. The mains power switches by rear toggle. There a button labelled 'Calibrate' is only for resetting default speed during service or when parts need replacing so keep your mitts off it.
Despite being an exclusive outfit, Clearaudio put together the Celebrity Al Di Meola Edition from tried and tested bits. The tonearm is the Profiler of their catalogue's central range, its arm tube aluminium with horizontal sapphire and vertical ball bearings under a cover like a bicycle bell. Clearaudio call it a resonance protection dome. The MM pickup encased in a shimmering copper-tone block is based on the well-reputed Performer V2 with an output voltage of 3.3mV. The Performer V2 is available individually for just under €400. Clearaudio's "unpack, set up, get started" mantra established since the intro of the Concept series is also the motto of our special edition. Largely pre-assembled, all that needs doing is to put on the drive belt, platter and screw on the tonearm weight as described. A rubber ring on the arm thread served as stop. If the weight which rotates quite tightly reaches it, the pickup should have a tracking force of 22 millinewtons. It doesn't hurt to check this with a small scale and adjust if necessary. By purchasing this player, we get the full Al Di Meola fan package whether we want it or not. So the deck delivers with 1977's Elegant Gypsy considered the artist's most commercially successful album at over two million copies sold. The LP comes as a 180-gram pink-tint reissue from US label Impex Records and like the player is limited and numbered to match so my record too had serial number 33/1'000. As an additional treat, the set includes a guitar pick signed by the master. The complete package of turntable, vinyl album and pick is expected to become a collector's item.
If Clearaudio puts test music in the box in high quality, we'll use it, right? With its pace, dynamics and light-footed Southern flair, not for nothing has Elegant Gypsy been a perennial crowd pleaser at hifi shows. The flamenco-tinged "Mediterranean Sundance" in particular will probably be familiar. Di Meola's favorite axe which he sometimes plays at insane speed is a good test of a pickup's ability to reproduce temporal precision and internal organization. Only when the multifaceted stringed overtone spectrum comes across and doesn't subtly drag in the overall context may we grasp the musical cosmos of this sometimes experimental album. The Clearaudio turntable didn't let anything burn and responded well to the throttle. Clarity and precision are also useful for Cure's new album Songs of a Lost World whose closer "Endsong" is as dark and melancholy, almost intoxicating and instrumentally condensed as though the dark Brits had never been on an 18-year hiatus. The extremely interwoven sonic tapestry of the wave pioneers from 1976 can only be understood acoustically if a system dives beneath the surface of the multi-layered, complex song structures.
