Clearaudio Stradivari V2

The Stradivari V2 is named for a reason: it treats cartridge design as instrument-making. A long-aged ebony wood body — with a paint-and-polish finish borrowed from Germany’s elite violin manufacturers — damps resonance in a way aluminum or ceramic cannot, and gives the cartridge its distinctive tonal character. Total mass just 7.0 g, which allows it to mate with a very wide range of tonearms.

Inside sits the same V2 / V2.1-generation generator that runs through Clearaudio’s reference-tier moving-coils — an absolutely symmetrical coil assembly (Peter Suchy’s patented topology), dual 24-karat gold air-core coils in a ring of eight super neodymium magnets, a solid boron cantilever, and a Micro HD or Prime Line diamond stylus. The body is machined into Clearaudio’s twelve-finger “flower power” platform — each finger with a different radius to break up any single resonant mode.

Stradivari V2 is Stereophile Class A Recommended and a Recipient of the Absolute Sound Editor’s Choice, and it sits directly alongside the Jubilee MC as a body-material sibling: same generator, same twelve-finger platform, same cantilever and stylus, different wood. Where the Panzerholz-bodied Jubilee tends toward focused and quick, the ebony Stradivari tends toward smooth and relaxed — the tonal choice a violin maker would recognise as meaningful.

Stradivari V2 is a natural match for a Performance DC Wood, Ovation, or Innovation-tier system with the Universal or Tracer tonearm and a proper MC phono stage. Available on order at LMC Scottsdale — walk in during business hours or book ahead if the audition needs a Stradivari-vs-Jubilee tonal comparison with your specific turntable and phono stage in the room.