Levitate Your Music! Clearaudio Magix2

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

Did David Copperfield use this before?


This is something new to me, Clearaudio calls it a magnetic damper, I'd see it more of a levitation device. It is actually pretty straight forward, if you can remember our primary school science class, you'd understand that with magnet polarities, opposites attract and if same, it repels each other. It's as simple as that! Just 2 magnets of the same polarity pushing each other away in a magnetically shielded cylinder. However, it's engineering involved is mind blowing! Otherwise, how do you keep two magnets pushing each other away, whilst maintaining free lateral movement(the sides of the top cylinder don't touch the middle outer cylinder but are somehow kept centered all the time), with height adjust ability to boot?



4 individually packed pcs is a box.


Yes, you read right, it's height adjustable. How? you simply turn the bottom extended rim clockwise or anti clock wise with one hand, while another hand holds the centre rim steady, to adjust the height of each damper. As per instructed by manual, each unit holds 8kg, my Marantz CD7 weights 23kgs. So I put one damper under each leg, with my Audio Physic supplied round spirit leveller place right in the middle of the CDP top plate, I proceed to adjust each of the 4 dampers until the spirit leveller is dead center. The process took a while, but once accustomed, can be accomplished a whole lot faster, as you'll see when I do the same with my Rega P25 turn table.


Marantz CD7 levitated, or elevated!

So the CDP is levitated, but how does it sound? In a word, fantastic! It's probably THE most effective isolation device around. It doesn't really change the sound that much, but what little it does matters so much to the music. It allows your equipment perform to it's fullest without exhorting it's own character, which by comparison, the FE Ceraballs do so to a certain extent(if over used, that is!). I can say that each musical instrument, vocal replayed via the system now has an added dimension to it. Like high hats has that brassiness to it. The piano seems more naturally real and violins have that little extra sheen to it's resonating body. Vocals have the extra body too. Best of all each and every instrument presented within the sound stage has that little bit of air around them, making them seemed free, un constricted.

Bulls eye!

Now the Marantz CD7 is normally not very receptive to tweaks, so having achieved this far really does say something about the levitation device. However, just to put everything in to perspective, The Clearaudio Magix2 doesn't change your system's tonality, doesn't make the sound stage wider of deeper. It doesn't re model the musical structure , but what it does is free up a little more harmonics from the music, making it that little bit richer and golden toned, which if you're a regular reader, will know that I favour over dead neutrality. I like my system to sound beautifully glorious, even if it's not the absolute truth.

3pcs Clear Audio Magix2 used to levitate the Rega P25 with Benz Micro Glider L2 cartridge.

Using the Magix2 with my Rega P25 turntable only required 3 pcs. Placed under the turn table in a triangular fashion, leveled with the help of the above mentioned spirit leveller. Again, when used with the Rega turn table, the music flows freer, and with all the above mentioned qualities present, albeit in smaller increments. It could be the Rega is a tad light weight for the Clearaudio Magix2. I previous had 3pcs of Finer Points cones(made of wood/resin mix with stainless steel tip) used under the Rega. In comparison, the Finer Points cones made the music sound a little lean, light weight or lacking image density, and bass doesn't seem to extend as low, also less articulate. By now, you can tell that I like the Clearaudio Magix2 very much!

Bulls eye again, boy am I a sharp shooter.

At RM$900/pc it's pretty expensive, but if you value the finer subtleties that makes music much more enjoyable, and have a pretty high end system to start with, you'd owe it to yourself, and your musical enjoyment, to check it out. I have a strange feeling it'll work very well under the Torus Power RM8A too! (Damm, .... I really shouldn't be thinking of the Torus again!)


Clearaudio sold by Audio Image, tel: 03-79563077

Posted by Panzer 3 April '09