Pro ject turntable6/4/2023 ![]() The carbon-fiber tonearm features a tiny screw near the base for azimuth adjustment, and I could detect no play in its synthetic sapphire bearings. Much about this turntable struck me as thoughtful and cool. I checked the cartridge alignment with a Dennesen Soundtracktor. Someone at Pro-Ject had thought carefully about assembly and taken the time to iron out the kinks, a sign of a mature product. But setting up this one turned out to be almost tedium freefollowing a poster-sized sheet with logical, well-illustrated instructions, I had the Debut assembled, connected, and leveled on my Box Furniture stand in about half an hour, a personal best. I probably shouldn't admit this, but for me the fussiness and tedium of setting up a turntable rank somewhere between scrubbing a bathtub and doing taxes. As Coates told me, this was a totally different beast. Instead of the Ortofon 2M Red, the new turntable comes with an installed Sumiko Rainier, a high-output moving magnet cartridge that retails for $150. "We hated to raise the price," Coates told me, "so we thought hard about practical ways of upgrading the turntable with existing technologies from our more expensive models." The EVO ended up with a new motor suspension, a heavier and better-damped platter, adjustable metal feet, and a motor-control circuit said to improve speed accuracy and stability. Jeffrey Coates of Sumiko, Pro-Ject's US importer, told me that part of the impetus for the EVO, which retails for $499, was an unfavorable exchange rate and production cost increases at Pro-Ject's factory in the Czech Republic. So, a few weeks later, I was suitably delighted when Pro-Ject's follow-up to the Debut Carbon DCthe Debut Carbon EVOarrived at my door. This compact system filled his small New York City apartment in a pleasingly fleshed-out and satisfying way, whether playing Stevie Wonder or Sibelius. With its hefty steel platter, carbon-fiber arm, and Ortofon 2M Red cartridge, it made for an effective combination with my friend's Bellari outboard phono preamp and Audioengine powered speakers. The turntable I ended up recommending was Pro-Ject's best seller, the Debut Carbon DC ($449). Yet, in the trenches of our hobby, $500 can be an awkward amount to spend on a turntable, much less an entire record playing system it's a price more commonly associated with a perfectionist USB cable. His answer: $500, tops.įor a sane, music-loving American, that's a reasonable sum to allocate to buying a really good record player, way better than the ones you'll find at big box stores or, God help us, Urban Outfitters. ![]() "How much do you want to spend?" I asked cautiously. Last time, it was Scott Walker, Fela, Joni Mitchell, Jacques Brel, Burzum, and both glorious sides of The Chronic. This friend knows and loves music as much as I do when he visits, we spend our time drinking wine and listening to records. A few months ago, a friend asked me to recommend a record player. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |