Morning

so, out of curiosity, and other then just pure ascetic value, anyone know what the difference might be between the clearaudio wood vs. stainless steel versions? they are the same price, im just curious if anyone knows that the deal is with them.

Morning

so, out of curiosity, and other then just pure ascetic value, anyone know what the difference might be between the clearaudio wood vs. stainless steel versions? they are the same price, im just curious if anyone knows that the deal is with them.

Good question, and I am also curious. I have a Clearaudio AURUM ALPHA MK II SS and was looking at the wood-bodied carts. Anybody have an opinion?

The wood-bodied versions are voiced to be warmer sounding. So if you have a system that is already warm, the metal-body model might be better. I have a wood-body Arum Beta that sounds wonderful in my SS rig feeding vintage Infinity speakers.

I went from an entry level clearaudio metal body on my emotion tt to a wood body clearaudio cart last winter. It's not an astounding difference but it is somewhat noticably more detailed and warmer sounding. Kinda pricey upgrade for me but I consider it money well spent.

Morning

so, out of curiosity, and other then just pure ascetic value, anyone know what the difference might be between the clearaudio wood vs. stainless steel versions? they are the same price, im just curious if anyone knows that the deal is with them.

In THEORY, the wood version should sound warmer. I have a Maestro wood which I REALLY like, BTW.

Alberto

I have whichever wood body Clearaudio MM cartridge that is supplied on the Marantz TT-15S. It sounds good, but nothing particularly special.

That would be the Virtuoso. I have one, too. My appreciation of it was proportional to its synergy with various phono stages.

Currently my table has a Benz Ace HOMC on it, running into a Lehman Black Cube. It took a while of playing with the cartridge loading for me to be happy with the sound, but now it has kicked the Virtuoso out of the room.

On topic, the wood-body Virtuoso weighs 6g. The stainless steel version weighs 10g. In addition to the sonic differences, the materials would allow you to get a better match for a particular tonearm.

I am using the Bottlehead Foreplay, FWIW. Previous cartridge was a b&o MMC-4 on a b&o TX-2. The Clearaudio is decidedly 'fuller' sounding; kind of bass-heavy, actually.

I read on another audio site that the someone found the highs produced by the steel version to be harsher than the wood one he later tried, but that could depend on a whole lot of other things. The wood ones seem to be a lot more popular, in any case.

But I'd bet if you're talking about something like the Maestro, either version is going to be incredible. Wish I had one.