Clearaudio Reference Jubilee Turntable

July 29, 2022

NEW CLEARAUDIO REFERENCE JUBILEE TURNTABLE NOW AVAILABLE

The original ‘Reference’ was Clearaudio’s first ever turntable, launched back in the 1980s. It featured a distinctive boomerang-shaped, resonance-optimised chassis.

The new Clearaudio Reference Jubilee reprises the boomerang shape, now replacing the earlier acrylic version with a higher-performing Panzerholz wood and aluminium construction.

CLEARAUDIO REFERENCE JUBILEE TURNTABLE

While the new Reference Jubilee incorporates several of Clearaudio’s tried and tested innovations, these come in slightly adapted and tailored forms. A 6cm-thick main platter, constructed from highly damped polyoxymethylene (POM), rotates on a special version of the brand’s frictionless Ceramic Magnetic Bearing (‘CMB’).

SPEED CONTROL

Below, and built into a heavy, 8.5kg stainless steel sub-platter, is Clearaudio’s ‘OSC’ Optical Speed Control, in which in an optical sensor takes a reading of the sub-platter’s rotational speed (with 1,598 impulses per revolution) and delivers that reading to a control unit. The control unit then immediately regulates the slightest of deviations by adjusting the motor’s voltage via an operational amplifier, for speed stability.

DIGITAL AND ANALOGUE

Then there is something you would not expect on a turntable, a DAC, here it is used to improve the precision and consistency of rotational speed.

A 12-bit DAC generates a motor reference voltage which is converted using discrete electronics into an analogue voltage signal. The digital reference is used only to compensate for slow movements or drifts due to temperature, oil viscosity, belt friction factors, etc, while the motor is driven purely by the analogue output stage.

AIR CORE MOTOR

The motor itself is a new high-torque, air-core (non-magnetic) 24-volt DC motor with belt drive. The entire motor housing is decoupled from the main chassis, suspended by an elaborate network of rubber ‘tightropes’.