what's the difference? clearaudio basic/basic plus

thank you for the info...

being that i just purchased a used basic, my i ask how you liked it?

the reviews seemed pretty favorable, figured i'd give it a try, but as a former owner of the unit would you lend your impressions?

thanks again

Hi, to me the Basic has always been a milestone, one of those hard to beat quality/price overachievers. Plug and play, easy to use. A unit that has been extremely well designed and built, has everything the regular analogue listener who just wants to enjoy good music needs and that one can happily live with for a long time with the comforting certainty that to get any better you must also be prepared to pay, markedly. Imho it will always beat the newer, cheaper and more hyped Smart in that respect because of the separate power unit and the automatic impedance matching. Over time, I used it with two turntables and three cartridges and it was, well, discrete and just very good. Quite extended at both ends of the frequency curve, nice musical flow, a bit grain surely - the question again: how much is one willing to pay to get less - and with a decent, if not the ultimative soundstage.

Let me tell you what it is not, because it has been chic to snub Clearaudio at times. It is not a "typical German" (whatever that is supposed to mean) cold, soulless note counter, and no, the "en vogue" Black Cube is not better and cheapo NAD stuff is most certainly not nearly as good. It is also not gear that you have to adjust painfully for weeks (admittedly sometimes to be rewarded with otherworldly sonic qualities). Its choice of two gain levels fits most not too exotic carts and that automatic impedance matching really appears to work.

I have been very pleased with the Basic in my system and eventually upgraded to a Quad P24, another overachiever in its own price range with "tube magic". But then again, that cost over 3 times as much as the Basic at that time.

thanks.

i picked one up used and it's been a pleasure, the little time i've had with it since i'm away from my stereo too much at the moment. It was an immediate step up from the built in phono stage in my amplifier and i'm quite happy. Now i just have o have time to set up the new turn table (clearaudio champion with a unify tone arm) and find a cartridge a cartridge to match... any suggestions? looking around 500 to 1000 range?

Hi, a bit more difficult to give cartridge recommendations. When I had the Basic in my system, I’ve been using it with Clearaudio Delta Improved, Clearaudio Victory H and, lastly, Transfiguration Spirit Mk3. So that’s two high output MCs and one “real” MC. I didn’t have matching problems with any of these. But of course my TT+arm was different from your gear. My brother uses a Clearaudio Maestro (MM) with his Basic+ on a Clearaudio Satisfy arm, which is a perfect match.
Perhaps your Unify arm craves for “more”, though. I have seen the Unify combined with Benz Glider “L”. If you went along that route, you would have the “M” and “H” as higher output alternatives, but as I said the Basic does low output as well (would be interesting to see, what it does best). If the Glider might bust your budget (don’t know what Benz costs in the US), then Benz ACE might just be a one step down alternative, again with three output alternatives.
Over here, in the same price bracket as the Glider are Clearaudio Melody or Lyra Dorian as yet another fine MC alternative; from an output point of view these are comparable to the “M” type Glider as far as I recall. (Don’t know what cart you use right now, some companies give generous trade-ins to keep the customer satisfied ;-) so you might end up at the higher end of your budget with any of these.)
An MC cartridge by Clearaudio in the ACE’s price bracket would be the Melody that I don’t know very much about though.
There will surely be others and some may even be the better “bang for the buck” in your system, that’s where a knowledgeable dealer has to do his job, though.

I own a Clearaudio Basic and a Rega P25 with Lyra Dorian cartridge. This combo works fine, the basic has no problem with the Dorian. I might be upgrading later.
The benz ACE is very very good for the price, if you go a step up i would stay away from the Glider but go Dorian. In my opinion the current Benz Glider is nothing special. From what I heard the current Ace is lasts model Gilder with a body.