Clarisys Audio Minuet planar ribbon speaker system Review

Flashback moments

There was a time years ago when I acquired a vintage Apogee panel speaker. It was the smaller model, the Caliper, which greatly eased the process of moving it downstairs into my listening room. I finally had my opportunity to hear the magic of a true planar ribbon (hereafter ribbon) speaker!

Life turns in unexpected directions, and once again my curiosity was stirred to hear a ribbon speaker when, at AXPONA 2023, I spied the Clarisys Minuet and thought it impressive. Seeing as there were two pair of these strikingly beautiful speakers at the show and one was available immediately afterward, I set up the review with the Clarisys designer, Florian Wiegand, and Michael Bovaird of Suncoast Audio, the US distributor.

Toward the close of this article for submission, I noticed that Clarisys is getting some positive media attention from the HIGH END Munich 2023 audio show for its Auditorium Speaker. Rightly it should, given that it was engaging at AXPONA 2023 and has been a standout in my room.

Before I get deep into discussion of the Minuet, a word of hope for owners of vintage Apogee speakers. Clarisys is dedicated to the spirit of the Apogee design, but with marked improvements. The company offers parts to rebuild vintage Apogee speakers and tutorial videos for owners seeking to rehab their speakers, as detailed on the Clarisys website.

I offered Florian a chance to answer some questions in an interview, and he accepted. I direct the reader’s attention to that interview, which will be published soon. Consequently, there will be less technical discussion about the speaker in this article, which will focus on the basics and listening impressions.

I find it refreshing that Clarisys publicly supports a charity in Vietnam, a country I will not forget visiting, especially Hanoi and Ha Long Bay. The charity is called ClariKid and it assists disadvantaged children by providing scholarships and treatment of cancer, and physically challenged children with the means to play soccer.

The Minuet has a 3-year limited warranty and is shipped in a set of flight cases. You do not want to throw these cases away as it could cost you dearly should you ever need to relocate the speakers. Those with severe space considerations will need to factor in storage of the flight cases. If one is desperate without capacity to store the cases, they can double as extra firm beds! I am jesting, and I certainly did not test it! One of the flight cases contained all the parts for the stands, copper jumpers for facilitating single wiring the speakers, and some Allen wrenches to affix the bolts on the legs. There is no User’s Manual currently, but Michael says it is in development.

Refreshing the front end of the system

In this next segment of the review, I am borrowing from my discussion of the Aurender A20 reference analog network player, which is is forthcoming at Dagogo.com. The A20 arrived two weeks after the Minuet speakers, and with the change to the front end of the system, I feel this discussion is relevant. I share it for general information about the sources used in the assessment of the Minuet and to demonstrate that the Minuet is a fine speaker for revealing system changes. If you do not care to read about my transition of the digital source or the streaming service Qobuz, skip to the section entitled “Appearance, Build Quality, and Shipping.”

I am experiencing a renaissance of system building of late. Investigating digital sources, I have revisited server/streamer components. Noticing the progress Aurender has been making, the fact that many fine HiFi shops carry it, and a positive experience at AXPONA, where no less than 20 units from the company were in use, I felt confident that it would be a fine choice for a review.

I am on an approximately five-year cycle regarding upgrading my digital front end. My journey in file playback started with a Mac Mini running the up-conversion software HQ Player. It was great at the time because I was inexperienced. It did not take too long, however, to conclude that it was woefully short of the ideal digital source.

Next, I checked out (reviewed) the Wolf Audio Systems Red Wolf Audio Server. It was far more capable and better sounding as a digital source. It lifted the digital performance as I hoped it would, but I was not thrilled about the J Play software. Together, with the Red Wolf’s operations, I found it to be more involved in terms of handling settings than I wanted. I opted to keep looking for something with a simpler interface. The Red Wolf/J Play combo seemed more suitable to techie types and those who were heavily into video.

The digital front end I have been using since 2018 is the Small Green Computer sonicTransporter and the SONORE Signature Rendu SE with systemOptique and linear power supply. Since that time, the optical converter has been assimilated into the Signature Rendu, thus simplifying the setup. But one is still left with two components that interface. I have appreciated the sound quality and the customer service of SGC/SONORE.

The sonicTransporter and Signature Rendu SE has offered me quite a bit of pleasure. It appears that there have been tweaks to the SGC/SONORE setup as opposed to an entire overhaul. In the past year or two, twice I sought an additional review while new units with upgrades were being introduced. I interpreted (not to put words into the makers’ mouths) what I was told, the differences might not seem profound enough to me. I believe my colleague David Blumenstein is currently seeking a review of these products, so for a more affordable digital upgrade, his article would be pertinent.

My comments on comparison between the SGC/SONORE components and the A20 also must be seen considering the current price disparity between them. The A20 is $15,000 versus the current MSRP equivalent of my setup, the sonicTransporter i5 Gen3 with CD Ripper ($1,925) and Signature Rendu SE – single enclosure opticalRendu and linear power supply ($4,950), together totaling $6,875), which is about 46% of the cost of the Aurender A20.

At AXPONA 2023 I was able to finalize my plan to review an Aurender A20 with Ari Margolis, the company’s Director of Sales and Business Development. Initially, I thought I would be fine with an outboard CD ripper, but it seems my dependency upon a Mac desktop complicates things. I couldn’t use a Macintosh drive to rip discs to the Aurender. Wishing to avoid unwanted complexity and potential technical problems, the obvious solution was to switch to reviewing the A30, which incorporates a disc drive. I was intent on having the capacity to rip discs because a large part of my esoteric CD collection is unavailable on a streaming platform. I am grateful that Aurender offers it. This review was completed during the time the A20 was in my possession, before it was swapped for the A30.

Some will say that streamer/servers are mere computers and that I am full of it for suggesting that one such product renders bits differently than another. I long ago grew weary of such arguments. An audiophile either builds rigs and learns how things sound, or they do not. I have stopped wasting my time arguing with people who want to joust theory and who often won’t spend their money regardless of the conclusion. There are two types of audiophiles, those who want better and compare, and those who don’t. I write for those who do comparisons, not for those who argue with no intent to act.

With time I am being pulled toward the one box solution. I have had plenty of doodads, add-ons and multi-box solutions and I’m tired of it. In this age of synchronicity of all things digital, I want a simple and powerful source, and I’m not inclined any longer to compromise. That potentially takes me out of the orbit of SGC/SONORE. Aurender seems to take that demand for simplicity and superb sound seriously. They obviously are putting their skin in the game by creating an ecosystem from which music is played so that they can control the process from the user interface to output to the speakers.