Introducing Clearaudio’s latest addition to its entry-level family of moving-coil cartridges, the Essence MC. Clearaudio has been researching into moving-coil technology since 1978 and the design team found itself facing quite a challenge when tasked with developing a brand new cartridge that would improve on the existing entry-level Concept MC, without breaking a key price point. By taking the essence of the Concept MC design and applying even more stringent parameters to key elements of its construction, the German manufacturer believes it might just have come up trumps.

Like the Concept MC, the Essence MC’s body is constructed from a high-density aluminium-magnesium alloy, which is then coated with a ceramic layer to minimise resonance. The boron cantilever, microline stylus and Clearaudio-patented moving-coil generator with its hand-selected high-performance magnets have each been subjected to rigorous scrutiny in order to achieve tighter tolerances. The result is improved dynamic performance, higher resolution and channel matching of better than 0.5 dB. The Essence MC has been designed to partner almost any MC phono stage, while its angular body shape with centre line at the front is designed to make it easy to align, while threaded holes mean that you don’t have to fiddle with screws and nuts. It comes with a full cover stylus guard.