Best Pro-Ject turntables 2024: Winning record players from the inimitable Austrian powerhouse

Since the pioneering release of the simple, sleek and supple-sounding Pro-Ject 1 turntable in 1991, Austrian hi-fi brand Pro-Ject has resolutely settled into its well-earned renown for record players iconic and reliable. Its no-nonsense approach to quality turntable design has seen the production of minimalist units with incredible sound reproduction, from the entry level right to the tippity-top of the market – and that’s led me to document the best Pro-Ject turntables you can buy right now.

You’re here because you’ve heard of Pro-Ject before, whether you’ve seen one of its striking obelisks in a friend’s living room or simply heard its name on the wind. You might also be aware of Pro-Ject’s reputation for turntables of quality construction and with commitment to great sound. These qualities apply to everything Pro-Ject makes – which, when it comes to choosing your next turntable, can make narrowing the playing field a little tough. 

In an effort to make things a little simpler, I’ve compiled a handful of the best turntables on Pro-Ject’s roster. From beginner-friendly starter models to audiophile-grade hardware phenomena, here are six of the best Pro-Ject turntables.

The Louder choice

The VT-E BT is one of the more striking turntables on the market, let alone in Pro-Ject’s roster – and not just because if can play records vertically. But mostly because it can play records vertically. Look. Look at it. It plays records vertically. …look. As well as playing records vertically it also plays with form in a quintessentially Pro-Ject fashion. This would look as great on your wall as it sounds on your wall. 

It’s a nifty spring-primed mechanism that allows it to play records vertically (did I mention that?), a mechanism which is pre-adjusted for your ease of ease after installation. An Ortofon OM-5E translates records beautifully, and a low-noise DC motor keeps things ticking along affably.

On top of the fact it can play records in a vertical manner, the VT-E BT is also refreshingly versatile. A switchable built-in preamp makes it plug-and-play, and a Bluetooth transmitter gives you the option to remove the ‘plug’ from that process. This well-built vertical-playing masterpiece extends far beyond its initial gimmick (which is, if you hadn’t gathered, that it can play records vertically!).

Best mid-price

Pro-Ject’s Debut Pro B is an extremely smart-looking manual turntable, building on the success of prior Debut models with a fresh and clever approach to its sound. The essential USP for this accessible slice of audiophilia is its ‘True Balanced Connection’ – a principle borrowed from the other side of the music industry glass.

Balanced audio connections, as utilised by audio engineers and live sound techs to send audio from microphone to mixing desk, make clever use of phase to eliminate unwanted noise induced in a signal (for the curious, look up ‘common mode rejection’); a purpose-designed balanced moving-magnet cartridge and a mini-XLR output on the rear together provide the Debut Pro B this robust alternative means of routing audio.

You’ll need a mini-XLR-compatible phono preamp to benefit from this True Balanced connection, of course, but there is also a phono out and ground lug for conventional connection. As for operation, the Debut Pro B is thoroughly and enjoyably manual, with a satisfying toggle for 33 and 45RPM speeds, and 78RPM a nudge of the belt away. 

Between high-quality, high-tolerance adjustment paraphernalia and a meticulous approach to providing fidelity along with affordability, this turntable is a well-priced wonder. 

Best automatic

The A1 Automat is Pro-Ject’s first entrant into the world of automatic turntables, and an intriguing entry at that. This corner of the market is predominated by the inexpensive – by no means a bad thing on its own, but something which can invite varying levels of build quality and longevity. Here, Pro-Ject marries its own commitment to quality design and quality builds with the convenience of the all-automatic entry level.

The A1 comes with an Ortofon OM10, a moving magnet cartridge with a gratifyingly detailed sound; it’s mounted to an aluminium tonearm, pre-aligned and pre-set for tracking force, making it as plug-and-play as it reasonably gets with turntables.

A built-in phono stage yet further improves the plug-and-play appeal of the whole operation, leaving you with an exceedingly satisfying automatic player suitable for every living space.

Best premium

To mix transport metaphors, the RPM 10 Carbon is a top-flight turntable from the good ship Pro-Ject, trucking in a near-unmatched flotilla of performance and stability criteria. On first impressions, though, its design is thrilling – particularly for the fun way in which it deconstructs the conventional (or, at least, common) form of the turntable. 

The perimeter-belt system is driven by a motor posted up on the rear-left of the hefty base plate, while the rear-right hosts the tonearm – from which an output cable runs directly. The verticality and topography of the unit make it seem as if the moving, record-holding and record-playing parts of the RPM 10 Carbon are stacked oddly atop one another, at once minimal turntable and art installation. 

At a shade under £4000, it is art-installation-adjacent in price as well as aesthetics. But that price is buying you one of the lowest-noise and most stable turntables going. The RPM 10 doesn’t come with a cartridge (at this far end of the price spectrum, there’s no presuming what you want from your hi-fi set-up), but it does come with the promise that your records will never be treated better.

Best upgrade option

The Pro-Ject X8 borrows from the higher echelons of audiophile-friendly turntables, to bring smooth and stable play to a slightly more accessible format – ‘slightly’ being the operative word at this post-£2000 price point. Still, this high-end beauty could save you thousands more for being a cleverly-designed player with a distinctly ‘executive’ aesthetic.

A hefty aluminium platter (weighing in at over 5kg – rivalling the complete weight of most mid-range turntables) provides stability and energy absorption, touting benefits for the colouration of records and for the stability of playback. On the electronical side of the equation, an Ortofon Quintet Blue moving coil cartridge provides clarity, fidelity and responsiveness befitting the X8’s stability.

The X8 might be above many budgets already, but it is a doorway to the wider world of audiophile-grade turntables. Its low noise, low distortion and high upgradability factor may see you lingering comfortably in that doorway for a while.

Best all-in-one

The Juke Box E1 is a full-service turntable from Pro-Ject, that goes beyond the customary phono preamp built into most low and low-mid range record players. 

This is the full monty – a record player, Bluetooth receiver and 100-watt hi-fi amplifier in one. The record-playing bit takes after the entry-level E1, being a better-than-entry-level entry level affair – one that uses a great choice of cartridge too, in the Ortofon OM 5E.

There is also an E1 set available, which bundles a pair of Pro-Ject’s Speaker Box 5 bookshelf speakers in along with the turntable. This set is truly all you need to get started with listening to vinyl, and its one of the absolute best starts you could get at that.

FAQ

Pro-Ject is a manufacturer that covers a great deal of bases, from entry-level units for first-time record owners to audiophile-level units that cost five figures. Where other manufacturers often succumb to major compromises in build quality and stability in play at the lower end of the price spectrum, Pro-Ject sort of doesn’t. 

The vast majority of Pro-Ject turntables, for one, are built within driving distance of the brand’s Austrian headquarters. This means more oversight, and more control, over the translation from design to product, and a better approach to construction quality in general. 

Pro-Ject’s position as an upmarket turntable brand both explains and informs its commitment to quality design, too, meaning wow and flutter are not as prominent a consideration as with other brands’ lineups. 

Picking out the right turntable, whatever the brand, is about priorities. What are your necessities, and what do you value? Necessities would include your maximum budget, and your expectations for whatever you buy – be they integrated phono preamplification, or Bluetooth compatibility for headphone listening. What you value, however, would touch on matters of build quality, tonearm stability and motor smoothness, amongst others.

With what we know above in mind, you can be sure that any Pro-Ject turntable you buy will be of quality construction, and of a minimum stability when it comes to to playing records. Of course, the more you spend, the better things get, so budget still matters. Upper-range Pro-Ject models use weight smartly, with high-mass models like the X8 and RPM 10 Carbon boasting impressively low noise and near-negligible percentages for speed drift.

Your own circumstances matter a lot here, as more expensive turntables can cost even more money to get situated in the ideal hi-fi set-up. The more expensive Pro-Jects come without a cartridge, let alone a phono preamp for ease of install – and if you’re likely to find yourself missing either, you should probably be looking in the sub-$/£1000 range anyway. This is where you’ll find accessible, easy-to-set-up models like the T1 or A1 Automat, and even complete hi-fi sets like the E1 Juke Box Set.

How we test

When writing this guide to the best Pro-Ject turntables, a number of criteria were put under the microscope including how the record players sound, how stable performance is, design and extra bells and whistles such as Bluetooth and if a phono pre-amp is built into the unit.

I’ve covered a number of price points and the six Pro-Ject turntables I selected cover a broad range of the audio firm’s offerings, and also take into account whether they’re automatic or belt-driven, if the turntables can be upgraded and how easy they are to get up and running straight out of the box.

Investing in a Pro-Ject turntable does come with a cost, from good mid-priced options to high-end behemoths, and I’ve tried to cover this in my top six picks. But no matter what style of record player you prefer, I hope you’ll find something of interest in the turntables above and I’ll add more entries where applicable.

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James Grimshaw is a freelance writer and music obsessive with over a decade in music and audio writing. They’ve lent their audio-tech opinions (amongst others) to the likes of Guitar World, MusicRadar and the London Evening Standard – before which, they covered everything music and Leeds through their section-editorship of national e-magazine The State Of The Arts. When they aren’t blasting esoteric noise-rock around the house, they’re playing out with esoteric noise-rock bands in DIY venues across the country; James will evangelise to you about Tera Melos until the sun comes up.