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Pro-Ject Debut PRO Turntable: A Modern Classic for Under $1,000
If your budget for a new turntable can stretch to $1,000, the Pro-Ject Debut PRO Turntable is definitely the one to buy.
30 years have come and gone and Pro-Ject seems to be entering its prime with a wide selection of new CD players, network players, and some of the most impressive turntables that the company has ever built. The Pro-Ject Debut PRO may not be the most expensive turntable in its arsenal — but it’s certainly the most important.
Pro-Ject sells the most audiophile turntables in the world and the list of OEM turntables that it produces for other manufacturers is quite extensive. If you notice certain similarities between Pro-Ject’s Debut lineup and other manufacturers who are focused on the market below $1,000, you don’t need to have your eyesight checked.
Pro-Ject has the distinct advantage of making most of their components in-house and the R&D resources to develop better sounding turntables for less money. When you run a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, you can experiment with different materials and setups and get the final product to market much quicker; even with the current supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic.
Nobody has their manufacturing capabilities or ability to create high-end parts and tonearms at levels that would bury most companies.
Rega probably comes the closest, but their focus has also turned like Pro-Ject on other product categories where they can complete the circle and offer the consumer a one-stop shopping experience.
Pro-Ject is also part of the McIntosh Group here in America where it can be packaged with Rotel, Sumiko, Sonus faber, and McIntosh products through a vast dealer network that only enhances its appeal.
The Pro-Ject Debut PRO is the natural competitor to the Rega Planar 3; one of the most popular and best-selling audiophile turntables of the past 30 years and having spent considerable time with both — it’s starting to look like a very different race.
Both turntables are the best options at $1,000 and you really can’t go wrong purchasing either one. The Rega sounds slightly quicker; agile might be a better way of describing it — but that’s where the race ends for me.
The Debut PRO is better at everything else; we’ll get to that later on.
One of the greatest failings of the Hi-Fi press over the past few decades has been our inability or even reluctance to provide proper context for consumers.
How a product behaves or interacts with other components within a similar price range and how you might build a system around it. I’ve been quite focused on that for the past few years with our “Audiophile System Builder” column and it should not come as a shock that I think the Pro-Ject Debut PRO belongs in a myriad of systems between $3,000 to $10,000 — its performance is that good if you can stretch that far at the top end.
This article originally appeared at ecoustics.com and an intro been published here with permission.
Read the full article: https://www.ecoustics.com/reviews/pro-ject-debut-pro/
