Pro-Ject Audio Systems is a European brand established over 25 years ago in 1991 and is renowned for designing excellent value turntables, tonearms, Box range hi-fi separates and vinyl accessories. Their current range includes many award winning turntables and critically acclaimed audio products.

Looking for a great value way of getting into vinyl? Pro-Ject offer some of the best value well-made turntables available, in a range that spans from the affordable Pro-ject Debut range to the high end Signature series.

Most noticeable models include the VT-E vertical turntable, Essential III Flexi-range and Classic. The Artist Series turntables exhibit collaborations with large names including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Guns N' Roses, Ringo Starr, Hard Rock Cafe and Parov Stelar.

Pro-Ject has also created special edition turntables for many industry leaders like the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra or Ortofon for their jubilees.

Each model is designed to offer excellent sound quality. With an eye for future trends, Pro-Ject turntables are consistently awarded the highest praise and industry awards available and the brand has become equated with analogue excellence.

Pro-Ject's expanded Box range offers miniature hi-fi separates that include Phono Box phono stages, Pre Box preamps and Power Box power amplifiers in DS+, DS2, S2 and RS models alongside Stereo Box RS and Pro-ject MaiA (My Audiophile Integrated Amplifier), DACs, streamers and more.

Box range is designed to offer excellent value from a space saving design and carry the excellent sonic properties Pro-Ject products have become known for. The Pro-Ject range also includes vinyl accessories for turntable set-up, maintenance and spares for existing turntable models.

Pro-Ject was founded in 1991 with the goal to offer the best analogue experience for reasonable prices. In a time where the digital audio media had been on the rise, and vinyl was declared as outdated and dead, Heinz Lichtenegger kept his belief in turntables.

Pro-Ject uses only the best components for the price and manufactures handmade goods solely in Europe. They ship to more than eighty countries and have won multiple awards from the renowned HiFi press.

They produce all turntables from scratch in Czech Republic by hand and in house from the tiniest screw to the chassis. In Slovakia, Pro-Ject manufacture micro-sized premium audio components with lasting value offering customer’s satisfaction in all their audio needs.

Many turntables include or offer a dust cover which protects against dust and particles that can affect the playback of your vinyl records. Dust can get in the grooves of your record or on your cartridge’s stylus and deteriorate the sound you experience, manifested through pops, crackles and loss of detail in music. Protecting your turntable from dust and maintaining your stylus and records is essential for best possible performance.

A key component of any turntable is the platter – the disc on which the record is placed. Different materials have different sonic properties, and deal with resonance in a different manner. Many higher end models use higher-mass platters and a range of materials to truly isolate and decouple the platter from resonance, vibration and motor noise. Many manufacturers offer platter upgrades, letting you upgrade your platter and improve the quality of your existing turntable. Acrylic, glass and aluminium platters are common upgrades which can increase performance of your vinyl playback.

In order for the record to play continuously, the platter needs to rotate or spin. Turntables have two varying approaches to this. The typical manner of achieving this is a belt-drive design, where a rubber belt attaches to a motor and in turn round the platter and controls the speed at which the platter turns. This is the method employed by most turntables. The drive belt will need to be replaced from time to time, as a stretched or worn drive belt can affect playback speed and result in a record being too slow or fast. The other method is direct drive, in which a motor directly turns the platter. This is the manner many higher end turntables control speed, and presents a different consideration for designers as the motor vibrations need to be isolated and controlled differently as the motor is connected to the platter directly and thus can have a greater effect on playback.

The output signal from a phono cartridge is typically very low, even more so if your cartridge is Moving Coil (MC). For this reason, before you connect to an amplifier, the output signal needs to be boosted. This is typically done by a phono stage which can be a separate standalone product or included on the turntable itself. Many integrated amplifiers also feature an internal phono stage, known as a “phono input”, allowing you to connect directly to this input. If your turntable features a phono stage then it can be connected to any amplifier directly.