Moving-coil pick-up cartridge
Made by: Clearaudio Electronic GmbH, Germany
Supplied by: Sound Fowndations, UKTelephone: 0118 981 4238
Web: www.clearaudio.de; www.soundfowndations.co.uk
Price: £960

CARTRIDGE

Clearaudio MC EssenceWill this tickled-up version of Clearaudio’s popular Concept moving-coil lift its sound to
a new level? That’s certainly the ambition, and without busting the £1k barrier
Review: Adam Smith Lab: Paul Miller

During the heyday of vinyl, 50
or so years ago, it was rare tofind a manufacturer that madeturntables, arms and cartridges,
rather than outsourcing production ofat least one of these to a third party. It
is therefore even more surprising to findthat one or two companies have actually
diversified into this rare position.
The most prolific manufacturer of thiskind has to be Clearaudio, whose new£960 moving-coil design, the MC Essence,is the latest in a long line of models that
can trace their heritage back many years.
Interestingly, though, the MC Essence
is not a new range-topper, but a design
which aims to build on the strengths ofthe company’s most affordable movingcoil while still keeping the price below theimportant four-digit barrier.

making it betterOf course, such a job is easier when you
have a good starting point, and the MC
Concept, launched in 2010, was very mucha solid foundation on which to build [HFN
Apr ’11]. As it happens, the Concept isalso a particular favourite pick-up of mineand so I was keen to find out how the MC
Essence would improve on its relative.
One of Clearaudio’s mottos has always
been ‘take the best and make it better’and this must have been the aim here.
However, for those who look to compare
specifications, they might be a little
disappointed, since the Concept
and Essence share a remarkably
similar set. In fact, the only realdifferences are that the Essence
turns in slightly better figures forcrosstalk and channel balance [butsee PM’s Lab Report, p57].
However, as is so often the case,the manufacturer’s specifications
don’t reveal the whole story soperhaps the MC Essence is best thoughtof as a more tightly toleranced version ofthe Concept. This is not a new approachwith earlier examples including the Bang& Olufsen MMC1, which was merely abetter specified MMC2, and Sony’s original
XL55Pro, which was a hand-selectedversion of the standard XL55.
As a result, the MC Essence is still basedaround Clearaudio’s tried-and-tested
aluminium/magnesium alloybody. This is then covered
in a thin ceramic coating
that’s left in a natural(clear) finish, contrastingwith the matt black of theoriginal MC Concept.
Internally, the generator
assembly is wound using
OFC copper wire and the business end ofthings comprises a boron cantilever andClearaudio’s micro-line stylus. All of thesecomponents are hand selected, however,to result in a cartridge that should offer
a performance that is much closer to its
notional specification. The overall cartridge
weight is 8g and the generator’s
output impedance is11ohm, suggestingthat a load

RIGHT: This shot clearly shows
Clearaudio’s rigid boron cantilever witha fine, micro-line stylus firmly cemented
into place [see magnified shot, overleaf].
Note the substantial magnet assembly

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impedance of 100ohm upwards will beappropriate with your choice of partnering
MC phono stage.

easily aligned
A key feature of the MC Essence is its bodystyling. This is a solid, chunky construction
and a world away from the exposed-stylus
look of Clearaudio’s more expensive
designs, for which I was grateful. Fitting
and aligning Clearaudio’s
Goldfinger Statement[HFN Jan ’15] was oneof the more nervewracking experiencesof my reviewing career!
Furthermore, there arethreaded holes in thesubstantial lugs flush withthe top of the body to make mounting easy
and eliminate the need for fiddling withadditional nuts and washers.
In addition, the rectangular shapemakes alignment in the headshell easy, andalthough the stylus tip is rather set backunder the body, a line on the front of thecartridge indicates its position and makes
cueing easy. Finally, the well shielded stylus
also makes fitting the stylus guard
much easier than on Clearaudio’s
costlier models.

‘The MC
Essence offers
an almost CDlike precision!’always secure
For evaluation, I fitted theMC Essence to my SME
309 tonearm mounted
on a Michell Gyro SE
turntable, and plugged
it into an Anatek MC1
phono stage, set to offer a
100ohm load.
The recommended
optimum tracking force isquoted as 2.2g and, during
my set-up I did find this to
give the best results. Anythingheavier and the midband became
a little ‘thick’ sounding, whereas
reducing the downforce added aslightly brittle quality to the treble.
With the MC Essence installed andLEFT: The two-part magnesium/
aluminium alloy body has a tough‘ceramic’ (oxide) finish and includes fullyenclosed, threaded lugs that ensure theEssence MC can be cranked tight into
any standard headshell

confident sound. One caveat here,
however, relates to dust and generalsurface dirt – when the MC Essenceencountered this, the ‘pop’ through theloudspeakers could be quite alarming.
Potential purchasers should ensure that
their vinyl is scrupulously clean, or thatthey have suitable funds allocated forregular trips to a record cleaning machine!

agile and fulsome

given time to ‘run-in’, I found that it had afamiliar Clearaudio cartridge trait, in thattime spent optimising all the arm settings,
including both VTA and azimuth, really
was a prerequisite. It is much less forgivingin this respect than other similarly-priced
offerings from the likes, say, of Ortofon.
The MC Essence merely sounds a little
indifferent until finely tuned. Otherwise
you might be tempted to conclude thatyou are hearing the cartridge as its makerintended. Unfortunately, there is a goodchance that you’re probably not. So takeyour time and double-check everything –the results are more than worth it.
All that said, the MC Essence did prove
much less finicky than the Goldfinger
Statement, which could sound quite
disappointing until the perfect balance ofall parameters was found, whereupon it
snapped into life.

Once correctly aligned, the MC Essencesoon announces itself as something rather
special. It has an alluring sense of dynamic
propulsion and makes performances reallycome to life. Changing to the MC Essencefrom my regular Audio-Technica AT-33PTG/II
seemed to bring the music out of its shella little more. Bass lines became more
confident, singers more expansive andinstruments better focused. In some ways,
the MC Essence could be said to have acertain CD-like quality to its presentation,
given the way in which it excels at detailand clarity.
Helping all of this by a good margin was
the MC Essence’s excellent
tracking performance.
Its secure trackingof the most highly
modulated grooves
confers an equally

ALWAYS INNOVATING
Clearaudio’s cartridge history extends back beyond the formal
launch of the company and involves a number of technicalinnovations. The first of these was in 1974 with founder Peter
Suchy’s development of the Paroc (parabolic oval cone) stylus in
conjunction with Dr Ernst Weinz. The same year, boron was utilised
as a cantilever material while its Trygon stylus, an early line-contact profile,
followed a year later. Clearaudio’s first cartridge, the MCIS, was patented in 1976
and released two years later, when the company was formed.
Cartridge development continued, culminating in the release of the famous
1980s models including the MC-7, and later Gamma, Delta and Pradikat models.
These were notable for their ‘hammerhead shark’ appearance, which wasnecessitated by the symmetrical arrangement of the four magnets within.
Sleeker bodies appeared in the Victory and Discovery models of 1999 and 2000
respectively, and the current 12-lobed ‘flower’ design of the top models wasintroduced on the Concerto in 2005.

With a suitably pristine copy of Julia
Fordham’s eponymous debut album [CircaRecords JULIA 4], the MC Essence placed
the vocals of the track ‘Happy Ever After’absolutely rock-solid centre stage. The
percussion at the start of the track wastaut, snappy and crisp, and the following
bass notes were deep and fulsome. All
too often I have heard them sound rather
uncontrolled and so with a slight tendency
to outstay their welcome, but with the MC
Essence this was not the case.
In fact, it turned out to be somethingof a master at the low end. It picked up
on bass lines like a bloodhound following
a scent and always made sure the music’s
pulse was perfectly judged. It never thrustbass lines too far forward to dominate but,equally, ensured that they were not lost in
the depths of a busier mix. This is a tricky
balancing act and I have only previously
heard much more expensive
cartridges really pull the trick off.
That the Clearaudio MC Essencecan hold its head high in thisrespect speaks volumes for its
generator design.
Time spent with thecartridge also showed thestrong central image stability
noted on the Julia Fordham
track was not a one-off event.
Clearaudio has struck gold in the
MC Essence as, no doubt by a dint of its
optimised construction, its stereo imaging
is magnificently focused. As indicated byPM’s Lab Report [p57], there is rather little
soundstaging beyond the lateral confinesof the speakers, where other competitors
can offer slightly more expanded widths.
Yet what is left in the middle is neveranything less than impressive and can bequite breathtaking on occasion.
Playing the new recording of Hans
Theessink, Live At Jazzland [Sommelier-www.hifinews.co.uk | REPRODUCED FROM HI-FI NEWSLab
reportClearaudio MC Essence
LEFT: Another view of theClearaudio MC Essence’s
precisely aligned boron
cantilever and robust alloy
body. The cartridge pins are
gold-plated and sufficiently wellspaced to accommodate most
tonearm leads/tags

du-son SDS 0016-1], showed that
the MC Essence is an absolute
marvel when it comes to fine detail.
The acoustic guitar strings wererazor-sharp in both clarity andimaging, with a delicious ‘bite’. The
Clearaudio MC Essence projected theperformance beautifully and set up atruly grand sense of scale.

BITE AND RESOLUTION
It also proved itself to be more than
happy with material that was a little
softer and more atmospheric. My
use of the word ‘razor’ might start
alarm bells ringing for some readers,
implying a sometimes strident treble.
However, this is rarely the case with
the MC Essence. While it is true thatit does have a lift in output at thetop end [again, see PM’s Lab Report],
this merely serves to ensure that its
detail retrieval is first-class.
There was rarely any particularsense that it was imparting an
artificial brightness to the music,
and at no time did its treble soundstinging or unpleasant, but brightlyrecorded or compressed-sounding
LPs were nonetheless revealed assuch. Otherwise, the MC Essence
typically had a way of digging out
low-level details in the music andmaking sure they were heard, while
also maintaining the more prominent
features of a recording.
A case in point here was Sade’s
version of Timmy Thomas’s ‘Why
Can’t We Live Together?’ from her
Diamond Life LP [Epic EPC 26044].

The percussion at the start of the
track was snappy and tight, andprojected out into my listening
room with an enjoyable energy.
As the bass line, vocals and guitar
joined the party, each found its own
space within a distinctly unclutteredsoundstage. Every aspect of the
track stood out in glorious clarity,
but the MC Essence also had a knackof knitting everything together tocreate a truly special whole.
As a rule, I found I could zero inon all the principal instruments of arecording with ease. Equally, I could
just as readily sit back, relax andrevel in the insightful and inherently
very appealing sound of this new,and relatively affordable, movingcoil. For many, it will make theperfect vinyl upgrade.

Despite the adoption of superior OFC wiring, etc, the core
performance of the MC Essence is still recognisably similar tothat of Clearaudio’s earlier Concept MC [HFN Apr ’11]. Output
remains the same at 410µV (re. 1kHz/5cm/sec) but the channel
balance has been tightened to 0.2dB. Similarly, the unequalised
distortion has been reduced from ~2.3% to ~1.8%, while(equalised) distortion vs. frequency [Graph 2, below] indicatesa lower 0.3-0.4% through bass and lower midrange rising toa moderate 3% at 10kHz. Importantly, the trend of THD vs.
frequency is clearly very consistent between L+R and L-R cuts,suggesting its contribution to the ‘character’ of the MC Essence
will also remain consistent from strong central dialogue, forexample, out to peripheral backing instruments.
The sound balance, however, is very different. Again, likethe Concept, the MC Essence’s in-phase response is far bolder
and brighter [black trace, Graph 1] with a reinforced presenceband pushing central vocal material forward from the mix.
Vertical, out-of-phase, information [red trace] is more rolled-off,reducing the vividness of far left/right soundstage detail despite
having a similar harmonic ‘colour’.
Otherwise, the micro-line contact stylus is accurately
mounted to achieve a 22o VTA and tracks like a dream. Bothleft and right 80μm grooves were successfully navigated at
2.2g while distortion at +18dB (315Hz, re. 11.2μm) was amere 0.6%. Few low compliance MCs are such fine trackers, butthe Essence does not possess quite the ‘stiff’ 9cu compliancesuggested by Clearaudio. Instead, an asymmetric 12cu verticaland 28cu lateral suggests the Essence is better suited tomedium rather than high effective mass tonearms. PMABOVE: Frequency response curves (–8dB re. 5cm/sec) lateral (L+R, black) versus vertical (L–R, red)

HI-FI NEWS VERDICT
Clearaudio’s new MC Essencebuilds on the strengths of thelower-cost MC Concept pick-up
to turn in a performance that isright at the top of its class. The
Essence manages to be dynamic,punchy and forthright, while
simultaneously offering up asoftness and delicacy that is mostappealing. Ultimately, it seems
that Clearaudio really has taken
one of its best moving-coils and‘made it better’.

Sound Quality: 85%
0-------- 100

ABOVE: Lateral (L+R, black infill) and vertical (L–R, red)
tracing and generator distortion (2nd-4th harmonics)
vs. frequency from 20Hz-20kHz (–8dB re. 5cm/sec)

HI-FI NEWS SPECIFICATIONSGenerator type/weight

Moving-coil / 8g

Recommended tracking force

2.0-2.4mN (2.2mN)

Sensitivity/balance (re. 5cm/sec)

410μV / 0.21dB

Compliance (vertical/lateral)

12cu / 28cu

Vertical tracking angle

22 degrees

L/R Tracking ability>80μm / >80μm

L/R Distortion (–8dB, 20Hz-20kHz)

0.4-12% / 0.3-8.2%

L/R Frequency resp. (20Hz-20kHz)+1.6 to –3.9dB / +3.0 to –3.5dB

Stereo separation (1kHz / 20kHz)

33dB / 19dB

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