The Clearaudio Absolute Phono is the world’s first active headshell moving coil phono stage, representing a radical departure from traditional designs. By mounting a tiny, high-performance circuit board directly into the tonearm headshell, Clearaudio amplifies the delicate signal from the cartridge at its source, improving the signal-to-noise ratio by approximately 10 decibels across the entire bandwidth.
Key Features
- Active Headshell Design: Amplifies the fragile MC signal within millimeters of the cartridge, bypassing the interference typically picked up by long internal tonearm wiring.
- Current Amplification: Utilizes current amplification technology, which automatically sets the optimum operating condition for any Moving Coil (MC) cartridge, eliminating the need for manual loading adjustments.
- Two-Chassis Construction: Employs an anti-resonance "sandwich" design made from solid Panzerholz wood and aluminum, with the power supply housed in a separate chassis to minimize mains interference.
- Zero Capacitance Signal Path: The circuit is designed without relays or coupling capacitors, ensuring a "loss-free" and ultra-pure connection to the output stages.
- Audiophile Components: Uses hand-selected, non-magnetic Silver Glimmer capacitors and fully balanced equalizer stages for a near-perfect linear transmission.