The Debut PRO is supplied with an 8.6", carbon-aluminum hybrid tonearm. "The motor is affixed to a steel plate, which serves as an excellent shielding."Ī felt mat is included, as is an acrylic dustcover, which I didn't use because plastic dustcovers, whether pitched up or down, can become devilish resonance chambers! (footnote 1) That motor is AC, driven by "an advanced version of the original Speedbox, which was an upgrade for turntables that provided additional speed stability and electronic speed change," according to Goddard. A separate, round silicone belt is supplied for dedicated 78rpm playback. The platter is driven via a nylon subplatter connected by a flat silicone belt to an aluminum pulley atop an AC motor that's decoupled from the turntable's base with thermoplastic elastomer bushings. That platter is attached to a stainless-steel shaft that nestles into a bronze bushing and rides on a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) thrust pad. Pro-Ject says this reduces wow and flutter. The Debut PRO's precisely balanced, 3lb, 300mm diameter, ¾"-thick platter is damped by a ½"-wide strip of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) sunk into the underside near the outer rim, damping resonance. During its stay at Ken's crib, the smooth-to-the-touch surface of the Pro-Ject plinth resisted smudges and fingerprints. It's constructed of a solid block of MDF, machined in-house and coated with seven layers of matte-black paint, Pro-Ject Brand Director Buzz Goddard told me in an email. That plinth is compact: 16 3/8" wide, 12½" deep, and 1¼" high. The brushed-nickel finish of some of the exposed metal parts also complements the plinth's matte-black paint. Most of its aluminum parts are nickel-plated in-house, which increases wear and corrosion resistance, and maydepending on the specific processincrease rigidity. Handmade in a Pro-Ject factory in the Czech Republic, near the Pro-Ject HQ outside Vienna, the Debut PRO has at tributes not often seen in turntables at its price, including a heavy, diecast-aluminum platter with internal damping, a steel bearing assembly flange, a nickel-coated aluminum bearing block, a hybrid aluminumcarbon fiber tonearm, adjustable azimuth and VTA, and leveling feet.īased on Pro-Ject's best-selling Debut Carbon EVO turntable, which itself replaced the Debut Carbon DC, the Debut PRO improves on earlier Pro-Ject models with CNC-milled aluminum parts, an upgraded tonearm and bearing, and a few more subtle but still beneficial upgrades. That's 30 years during which they've delivered hundreds of thousands of turntables to music lovers across the world. Consider the timing: Pro-Ject was formed in the early 1990s, a time when vinyl records were nearing extinction. Priced at $999 including a Sumiko Oyster Rainier moving magnet cartridge, which costs $149 a la carte, the Debut PRO has been issued to celebrate Pro-Ject's 30-year anniversary as a manufacturer of turntables. When I was assigned to review the Pro-Ject Debut PRO, I gathered my tools in excited anticipation of its arrival, even knowing that it would be set up by the factory. My Thorens is both a part of my reference system and an enduring audio legacy. He did: It ended up at my Greenwich Village apartment. They returned the turntable to him in 1995 and, not long after Art Dudley became Stereophile's deputy editor in 2015, Kal gave it to him, knowing he would find a good home for it. Kal gave it to them as part of a dedicated mono system with an EICO integrated amp and single JBL speaker. ![]() Turntable as family heirloom? My Thorens TD 124 was originally the property of the aunt and uncle of Stereophile Senior Contributing Editor Kalman Rubinson. A turntable is a time machine that can bring endless years of enjoyment to you, your family, and your friends. I delight in that second when the stylus is gently lowered to the record's surface and it begins to give up its secrets. Every turntable, like every other audio component, imbues the music with its own personality. No matter a particular 'table's position in the audiophile food chain, I always enjoy hearing what it can extract from my beloved vinyl grooves. Once you've dialed in all the setup parameters, including leveling, cartridge alignment, azimuth, tracking force, and VTA, you can savor the beauty of music. I've learned by watching Mike that, when a turntable setup tries your patience, the thing to do is keep calm and carry on. ![]() My buddy and Sound & Vision contributor Michael Trei makes turntable setup look like child's play. Whether it's for myself or for a friendwhether it's a budget model with a layered MDF plinth and nonadjustable tonearm, or a megabuck, state-of-the-art behemothI relish the ritual.īack in the day, I used to huff and puff, scream and shake, thanks to the heebie-jeebies I'd get when attempting to raise a turntable to ultimate performance. ![]() I enjoy few things more than setting up a turntable.
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