Pro-Ject Essential II

It's worth noting that the feet on this are also designed to be sort of absorption of vibration, the spring load. This is the type of stuff we expect ...

Progex Essential 2 Turntable is the obvious choice for those wanting to break into the audio file world and keep to their budget. It comes in black, w...

Had a Pro-ject Essential II for years, was a decent tt, recently the stylus died for the third time, I bought a Goldring e3 and enjoyed it very much. Then ended up upgrading the rest of the hifi so bought a Debut Carbon Evo and Schiit mani (got rid of integrated amp and got chifi tubes with no phono stage, speakers are Klipsch RP-600m).I ran the Schiit mani on the Essential II while waiting for my Debut and it sounded great, much more clear and detailed than my old phono stage (Onkyo 9010). I should say that when the Debut arrived the table as a whole sounded great, considerably less noise in general, more space (which always seems to come with less noise), bigger soundstage etc etc. But as soon as I heard the Ortofon 2m Red I knew the sound wasn't for me, don't get me wrong it's a good cart, quite revealing but it's far too edgy for me; sibilance central and the IGD was also pretty off putting.

I've used a Technics SLQ200 for 17 years without a single hiccup, so I was extremely hesitant about picking up a new, all-manual table, which looks like a flimsy toy compared to the Technics tanks (albeit a pretty one). Well, to my surprise, even this budget table sounds MARKEDLY better than my Tech...

Bluetooth as well. Novelty with a good degree of quality with the Pro-Ject.

Not only did I suffer from considerable feedback issues with this deck, the belt snapped after one days use. When properly isolated it sounds good, but honestly no better than my old SP25 other than less rumble. In my opinion it is the cartridge rather than the deck that is the real star of this sho...

Right now I’m listening for tracking issues mainly as I have a really hard time with inner groove distortion (hence the advanced stylus shape eventually going on). Pro-Jects from 10-15 years ago, like this Essential, the Debut III/Carbon, Genie, and RPM 5.1 are known for motors that aren’t decoupled from the plinth.

For the price, this is a fantastic turntable. I'm really pleased with the crisp sound quality. It's minimal look is very stylish and the red finish is striking. The carbon tonearm is really impressive and wouldn't be out of place on a much more expensive turntable. It is a little fiddly to put toget...

The essential came with a basic Ortofon 5e stylus and I’ve fallen out of love with Vinyl as the sound is harsh. The hifi shop recommended the Ortofon 10 or 20, and said it would transform the sound, and I heard no difference.

The player is not as simple to put together as I first thought, there are no pictures to help guide you. I bought my player new to discover that already it seems as if the needle is dragging on the records. I have removed the plastic cover from the needle, and have messed with the balance of the ton...