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<\/p>\nPro-Ject\u2019s track record with budget turntables is unrivalled. Over the years we\u2019ve had various versions of Debuts, Genies and Essentials dominate this end of the record player market. This year it\u2019s the turn of the Pro-Ject Essential II to shine.<\/p>\n
As the name implies this is a back-to-basics kind of product. There are no headline-grabbing materials or technologies here, just great build at a highly competitive price.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The upgrade over the original\u00a0Pro-Ject Essential\u00a0is substantial. There\u2019s a new, quieter and smoother motor, a different arm (now no longer a unipivot design) and a better cartridge in the form of Ortofon\u2019s OM5e.<\/p>\n
Want to play singles? You\u2019ll need to manually shift the drive belt to the larger step on the motor pulley. This is as basic as turntables get, but it\u2019s no worse off for that; the money has gone into the engineering.<\/p>\n
The main bearing is nicely made, while the arm has a quality feel, with minimal play in its bearings. We\u2019ve come across the Ortofon cartridge before. It\u2019s a good, solid, well-proven performer.<\/p>\n
The Essential II is available in three finishes. The standard option is matte black, which costs \u00a3200. Add a tenner and you can have red or white alternatives.<\/p>\n
Every turntable we\u2019ve come across needs care over placement to ensure optimum performance, and that\u2019s especially the case here. There\u2019s little in the way of suspension, so a rigid support placed well away from the speakers is advisable if you want the best results. Do this, and the Essential 2 delivers a terrifically musical sound.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Radiohead\u2019s\u00a015 Step<\/em>\u00a0shows the Pro-Ject to have a firm grasp of rhythms and strong sense of drive. There\u2019s plenty of punch and a good level of insight into the production.<\/p>\n The Essential doesn\u2019t have the analysis to strip bare a recording like this, but neither does anything else at this level. What it does do is deliver the music in an exciting and entertaining way. It keeps us listening, wanting more, and that\u2019s what makes this latest version of the Essential special.<\/p>\n Move onto Orff\u2019s\u00a0Carmina Burana<\/em>\u00a0and the Pro-Ject Essential II delivers a sound that\u2019s full of life and drama. We\u2019re pleased by the deck\u2019s scale and composure \u2013 these qualities aren\u2019t very common with this kind of product. There\u2019s a good amount of detail and enough refinement from that Ortofon cartridge to stop things getting edgy, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Pro-Ject has done it again. The Essential II is a frill-free entry-level product that gets all the basics spot-on. It\u2019s easy to set-up and even easier to enjoy. It makes listening to records fun, and we can\u2019t ask much more than that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pro-Ject\u2019s track record with budget turntables is unrivalled. Over the years we\u2019ve had various versions of Debuts, Genies and Essentials dominate this end of the record player market. This year it\u2019s the turn of the Pro-Ject Essential II to shine. As the name implies this is a back-to-basics kind of product. There are no headline-grabbing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtec.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtec.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtec.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtec.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtec.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5051"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/abtec.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6385,"href":"https:\/\/abtec.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051\/revisions\/6385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtec.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtec.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtec.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/images.cdn.whathifi.com\/sites\/whathifi.com\/files\/styles\/big-image\/public\/ProjectEssential2_3.jpg?itok=GuUvZhz8\")
<\/p>\nVerdict<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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