Clarity Vinyl 45rpm "Stairway to Heaven" Test Pressing Is Today's Track Du Jour

can Koetsu carts do rock?

When Classic Records issued the first 4 Led Zeppelin albums in a 200g box set edition it included a test pressing of "Stairway to Heaven" at 45rpm. Later, it issued a very limited edition TP on Clarity Vinyl, the same basic formulation Analogue Productions uses now for its UHQR releases. The history of that formulation and how Classic Records started using it is an interesting. I would have told it in the video but was pressed for time so here it is:

Furutech makes a record "demagnetizer". I got one to review decades ago and was skeptical of a plastic demagnetizer. My friend Ken Kessler was visiting from the U.K. to review the Continuum Caliburn turntable and we laughed about the Furutech but decided to test it with a familiar record to both of us, so we went with Marti Jones's Used Guitars. We played "Tourist Town" then "demagnetized" it. T

The difference, much to our surprise, was immediately noticeable: smoother, with an edge removed. It wasn't subtle. We were both blown away as record after record produced the same difference. I mentioned it to Classic's Mike Hobson who visited me soon thereafter and I took the Classic Records Masked and Anonymous soundtrack album out, we played it then I "demagnetized" it and he immediately heard the difference: it was less bright, less edgy and smoother sounding. He was surprised.

The supposed explanation is that the carbon black holds a magnetic charge that build up as the record spins. Whatever it is, the Furutech works as I've demonstrated to endless numbers of skeptical visitors. Hobson later sent over two copies of Leo Kottke's 6 and 12 String Guitar he'd had pressed. One copy on the new Clarity Vinyl and one on black vinyl. The differences were obvious until I demagnetized the black vinyl version and then it sounded more like the Clarity vinyl version.

And that's how Classic came to release records on Clarity Vinyl! I've had the black vinyl TP for years but recently Jonathan Badov of Sonic Artistry in Canada was generous and sent me this Clarity vinyl copy. It's got a few pops and clicks but otherwise sounds great (some of the later Classic Clarity Vinyl releases had this issue).

I used the Koetsu Coralstone Platinum cartridge on the latest edition of the SAT CF1-12 tonearm. Anyone who thinks Koetsus can't do rock, will think differently after hearing this! But I think only the Coralstone can do this... I was going to include a bonus track from Butthole Surfer's album "Hairway to Steven" but ran out of time.

Comments

2026-05-26 12:58:40 PM

Come on wrote:

Fortunately I'm not that much of a rock nut (except some Hendrix etc.), as this track du jour seems to get a kind of FOMO series with your rarest pressings ;-)

As you mentioned the Furutech and I recently already thought about asking you .... do you regularly use it before playing each record? If not when do you? I'm curious if such a device (just as a relaxing flattener etc.) is practically really used at all to a noteworthy degree. If it just takes several seconds to demag, like with the Furutech CD demagnetizers used in the past, I possibly would.

Regarding the clarity vinyl: when comparing to the black vinyl equivalents I usually registered a slightly more 3D sound and the kind of slight smoothness that usually comes with more resolution.