For this initial round of listening (because there’s more to follow) I relied on the Stabi M/4Point11 ‘table, used with its peripheral mass-ring/clamp and Kuzma’s Mpingo record weight. The CH Precision P1 was paired with an L1, both driven from a dual output X1, feeding an M1.1. Speakers were the latest Peak Sinfonias (much improved over the already impressive original version), cabling was all Nordost Valhalla 2 and the speakers were hooked up to ZeroPoint’s fascinating Matrix 1 electrical/mechanical grounding boxes. Racks and amp-stand were the Andante Largo Grand Towers, quickly becoming an indispensable part of the review system, with their open, unrestricted sense of access to the music and system’s performance. Overall, it’s a well-balanced and musically communicative collection of components that punches well above its weight in price/performance terms.
It’s important to note that the ET demands serious running in. It sounded extremely soft to start with and didn’t find its dynamic feet until it had been run for around 200 hours and the VTF adjusted. But what emerged was anything but soft. The ET blossomed into a quick, agile, transparent, immediate and musically dynamic performer. It offered a real sense of coiled, musical energy, just waiting for release, driving the music with a taut, propulsive rhythmic integrity. Leading-edge response and note placement were exceptional, underpinned by the cartridge’s top-to-bottom linearity and coherent timing. That sense of life and energy, unbounded musical enthusiasm and unrestrained dynamics turned XTC’s English Settlement (Virgin Records V2223) into a joyous romp that danced through the complex rhythmic shifts and patterns, effortlessly unravelling the instrumental layers and clever, vocal intricacies. The sense of depth and space within the recording might be synthetic, but it was impressive, nonetheless. Much of what makes the Clab cartridge so musically enjoyable is rooted in that transparency and immediacy. It’s also what makes it sound so different and distinctive.
Let’s take ‘Sketch For Summer’, the opening track of Vini Reilly’s debut album of treated guitar, The Return Of The Durutti Column (Factory FACT 14) as a case in point. With the Lyra Etna Lambda SL it opens with ‘birdsong’, twittering above the speakers, before the solid thump of the drum track enters and the wash of soft guitar, flooded with echo and reverb. It’s a hypnotic sound that’s as immersive as it is suggestive, conjuring the lazy bumblebee drone of an early summer’s evening. Switch to the Clab ET and it’s like flicking a switch: The track opens onto a huge, tall, airy soundstage; the ‘birdsong’ rises way higher and now it’s obvious that it’s mainly synthesised and extrapolated from just a couple of samples; the drum track is crisper, providing more leading-edge impact and rhythmic impetus; the layering of the guitar lines is more apparent, with more shape to the melody and a less diffuse sound. This is still summer, but there’s nothing lazy about it. Instead, this is the almost subliminal but insistent midday hum of early June, close to water. And talking of rhythmic shifts, just listen to the way the guitar line weaves around and apart from the repeated arhythmic plod of the bassline on the track ‘Requiem For A Father’, before effortlessly sliding into lockstep and making sense of what is otherwise disjointed and disconcerting. Reilly plays with rhythm the way he plays with his effects pedals – and the Clab tracks his intent with almost gleeful ease.
