Clearaudio Compass turntable, arm & cartridge
I have been around audio as a consumer, retailer and reviewer for a very long time but this is my first encounter with any product from Clearaudio, a company founded in Germany in 1978. From that time the company has built a very impressive product portfolio, centred around turntables, tonearms and cartridges. Their Statement turntable retails for about £136,500 here in the UK, which puts them into a very rarified part of this mad audio world which we all inhabit. However, the turntable which has been gracing my rack for the past few weeks, the Compass, is at the other end of the spectrum and retails at a rather more real-world £1,099.
First impressions are always important and when the Compass was delivered the box felt reassuringly weighty. Very carefully packed within was an acrylic dustcover, a solid plinth with the tonearm and cartridge already fitted, and the outer platter, also acrylic, packed separately at the bottom. The ancillaries such as the mains lead, drive belt, counterweight, anti-skate weight and a selection of Allen kets were sealed in separate packages. Getting everything unpacked and set up was pretty straightforward and should be well within the capabilities of most buyers. There is not a full user manual in the box but an excellent one is just a few clicks away on the Clearaudio website.
The Compass features a nine inch aluminium arm available in black or silver to suit the black or silver versions of this turntable and has a thread and weight anti-skate system allied to dynamic downforce setting, meaning that this aspect needs to be set by adjusting the position of the counterweight. The N1 MM cartridge must be the only aluminium body example on the market and looks like great value at £99 (when sold alone). It has an elliptical stylus on the end of its aluminium cantilever and tracks best at an MC like 2.2 grammes.
Attaching the drive belt was a the work of but a moment and getting the counterweight and anti-skate sorted took a little more concentration. Once my spirit level confirmed that the deck was level and that the tracking weight on the pre-installed N1 moving magnet cartridge was set at the required 2.2g all that remained was to connect the RCA terminated arm leads with their accompanying ground lead to a phono stage and we should be ready to go. As luck would have it my resident phono stage was having a fit of the vapours so I brought out the tiny, but excellent, iFi Zen Phono 3, that I happened to have on hand.
With all that done I switched the player on using the rocker switch hidden under the plinth on the right hand side. The response was immediate. The good old ear to the loudspeaker test revealed an inky black silence, which was pleasing. The preliminaries completed, we were ready for some music.
The rest of the review system comprised of my Primaluna EVO300 Hybrid integrated amplifier and my Harbeth Compact 7 ESXD2 loudspeakers. I was very intrigued to hear how a front end that costs under £1,100 would hold up with an amplifier and loudspeakers which, if bought together, would leave you with just enough change from £10,000 to treat yourself to a Big Mac on your way home from your dealer’s emporium.
Compass sound
The first record I set down on the hard acrylic platter, was my original copy of Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band’s Against The Wind which I bought in 1980 and which still wears the WH Smith price sticker of £3.99. Happy days. The plan was to let the Compass and the iFi Zen 3 warm up and to return for some proper listening a bit later. Plans, as a general may have once said, are the first casualties of contact with the enemy. In this case it was with the first few bars of track one side one. The Horizontal Bop may not go down as one of the greater songs in the Seger canon but there is no denying that it has a great riff at its heart and a beat guaranteed to get feet tapping. I grabbed the Primaluna remote control and gave the volume up button a couple of hearty stabs, transforming the sound from the jukebox in the corner of the bar to the band playing on a stage that jutted out on to the bar room floor. I was hooked.
The next week passed with a succession of favourite albums being given an outing on the Compass. Ry Cooder’s Bop Till You Drop – I promise you the whole Bop thing was just a coincidence – from 1979 came and went in a blizzard of West Coast wizardry. Mr Cooder’s delicious guitar licks and instantly recognisable vocal delivery, accompanied by some first division musicians on what was reported at the time of its release to be one of the very first recordings done with the new-fangled digital recorders, make this a compelling listen. Whatever technology was used, this is a fine sounding record and once again the Compass and iFi in no way sounded inappropriate in the context of around £10k’s worth of amplifier and loudspeakers.
I won’t bore you with the whole playlist but allow me to mention a couple of other highlights of my listening over those days. First, from 1971, my original copy of Osibisa’s Woyaya. From the stunning Roger Dean artwork featuring a scarlet elephant with giant dragonfly wings to the immaculate pressing by MCA and Tony Visconti’s excellent live-in-the-studio production, this is a striking album. The joyous music making of the Nigerian, Ghanaian and Jamaican musicians is irresistible and had me utterly engrossed from start to finish.
Next, the 2005 release by the late lamented Classic Records pressing of what for me is the Who’s finest studio album Who’s Next hit the Compass’ platter, originally released on Track Records in 1971. This really called for some deft thumb work on the volume control, to a level where had I not been home alone serious words would have been uttered by the head of the household. Home alone and suitably irresponsible, I sat with ringing ears for some time after Won’t Get Fooled Again had finished, until eventually the crack of the run-out groove got through to me and I lifted the arm from the spinning disc.
I played solo piano, some jazz quartet stuff and even some Mozart choral work on the Compass and it all sounded very fine. In fact I was quite happy towards the end to pick discs almost at random, the Compass/N1 combination did not baulk at anything except a record which I know has some war wounds from its 50 years of hard life and which very few players have not found beyond their abilities to track.
I should also add that the online manual urges the user – in red ink – to remove the dustcover before playing a record to get the best possible performance. I obeyed and I am sure this holds true for every record player I have had here with a dustcover.
Conclusion
I am not sure if the so-called vinyl revival is still even a thing in early 2026. However, let me share with you some good news for those who are drawn to this weirdly addictive form of music replay. The Clearaudio Compass turntable system is a fine music maker and represents extraordinarily good value for money. It feels well engineered, it is easy to live with and it sounds good. Plug it into the MM phono stage built into your amplifier or go the extra step and get an external phono stage and the Compass should give you many hours, years even, of magic music from vinyl.
Pros
Excellent value package: turntable, tonearm and cartridge included for a relatively affordable £1,099.
Strong build quality: solid plinth, acrylic platter and well-engineered components give a reassuringly substantial feel.
Easy setup: pre-installed tonearm and cartridge make installation straightforward for most users.
Good packaging and presentation: carefully packed with clearly separated accessories.
Engaging, lively sound: delivers rhythm, drive and musical involvement that keeps you listening.
Works well in higher-end systems: performed convincingly alongside much more expensive amplification and speakers.
Versatile performer: handles a wide range of musical styles confidently, from rock to jazz and classical.
Very quiet background: low noise floor helps reveal musical detail.
Well-matched cartridge: N1 MM cartridge offers impressive performance and good value when considered separately.
Cons
No printed manual included: instructions must be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website.
Some setup steps require care: counterweight and anti-skate adjustments may be tricky for newcomers.
Dustcover best removed during playback: slightly inconvenient for everyday use.
Rocker power switch hidden under the plinth: not the most convenient placement for frequent use.