Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

The origin of the 24K gold coils and symmetrical magnet array inside the Jubilee can be traced back to the generator assembly inside the Concerto [HFN Sep '06], Stradivari v2 [HFN Aug '10], Talisman v2 Gold [HFN Jul '12] and even the flagship Goldfinger Statement [HFN Jan '15] where no fewer than 12 magnets are employed. In this newest generation, output is higher than the specified 0.5mV at a generous 0.7mV (re. 1kHz/5cm/sec into 100ohm) and with a tight channel balance of 0.13dB. The Panzerholz shell is rigid but very lightweight, and even with the metal frontispiece and inset top-plate, the Jubilee weighs just 7.5g. Combine this with the higher-than-rated 20cu compliance and this MC is seems suited to lower effective mass tonearms.

Thus partnered, the Jubilee turns out to be a superb tracker (as well it might at 2.8g) surmounting the 80µm groove pitch, sailing through the +15dB band (315Hz lateral cut, re. 11.2μm) at ~0.5% THD and clearing the maximum +18dB band at ~0.8% THD. Again, like earlier Clearaudio MCs, the unequalised 1kHz/5cm/sec distortion is not 'low' at 4% but it's a benign 2nd harmonic, and the equalised stereo trace holds between 1-4% across the entire 20Hz-20kHz audioband [re. –8dB, see Graph 2]. The 'Prime Line' diamond is of high quality but the VTA is a high 28o, so some adjustment of rear arm height might be useful in tweaking its tonal balance. Talking of which, the Jubilee's response pitches up at 10kHz (+4dB lateral, +3dB vertical) before falling away to –8dB/20kHz [stereo, dashed trace, Graph 1] – a bending mode in the long cantilever, perhaps. Nevertheless the symmetry of these L+R and L-R responses augurs well for the uniformity of the Jubilee's soundstaging. PM