Best Overall Record Player 2024 - What Hi-Fi?
Best Designed Record Player 2024 - Rolling Stone
Recommended Component 2023 – Stereophile
Premium, "Sexiest" Analog Reproduction Made Affordable
Since 1991, Pro-Ject has been offering high-quality hi-fi products at a reasonable price for discerning music lovers. Pro-Ject started with turntables, because they are the first choice for the most natural and affordable music reproduction. The main focus is always on the materials and technology used. The shape and design of Pro-Ject turntables are always dictated by the functionality.
To this day, the designs have always been kept functional and clean, so the first Pro-Ject product was very simple but made from the highest quality materials: MDF, steel, aluminum, glass, and carbon. Plastic was not used for reasons of sound, durability, and the love of the environment. The result was a high-quality but simple-looking product with great sound at a low price.
After the Debut Carbon EVO revolutionized the Debut series in 2020, the Debut PRO raises the bar even higher. Now, for the 30th anniversary, Pro-Ject is again going back to its roots in premium analog reproduction.
"The Best Value Option at This Price Point"
"Not only a multiple What Hi-Fi? Award-winner, it's also now the best value option at this price point," notes Kashfia Kabir in a February 21, 2024 Post for What Hi-Fi?, which named the Debut Pro its Best Overall Record Player 2024."
"This Debut Pro turntable is terrific at digging deep into the production and revealing layers of instrumental textures that most at this level ignore. It sounds incredibly precise and crisp."
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored the Pro-Ject Debut PRO by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2023.
According to Stereophile, "The Debut PRO is a lively, fun, exhilarating turntable; it makes records—or rather music from records—jump, boogie, and sing… I was consistently surprised at the Debut PRO's ability to relay gobs of detail in a natural, compelling manner."
"This… handsome-but-unassuming record player proved to me what a manufacturer with decades of experience and expertise can do when designing an analog machine to a price point. The Debut PRO bowled me over with its dynamics, detail, soundstaging, spatial depth, and scale."
"The Sexiest Record Player Out There"
"Sleek and sophisticated, the Pro-Ject Debut PRO turntable is perfect for the stylish audio crew," reports Rolling Stone, which honored the Debut PRO as Best Designed Record Player 2024. "It's equipped with a fully adjustable Azimuth & VTA, an aluminum tonearm for perfect tracking, and a heavy aluminum platter with a TPE ring to dampen all resonances and minimize flutter. If you’re looking for the sexiest record player out there, look no further."
Upgradeable Sumiko Rainier Phono Cartridge
Pro-Ject Audio Systems teams up with Sumiko Phono Cartridges for the release of Debut PRO in the United States. Sumiko Rainier is high-value moving magnet design in Sumiko's Oyster cartridge series and has great synergy with the majority of moving magnet phono stages on the market, including preamps built into amplifiers and receivers. With Rainier onboard, Debut PRO is dressed to impress casual listeners and audiophiles alike.
Rainier achieves even-handed, honest, rich and full sonics with no sacrifice in detail retrieval. This is done through resonance control, which delivers the sonic signature of Sumiko's latest Oyster cartridges that have taken the world by storm. Consistent with Pro-Ject's advocacy for a hands-on experience for the listener, Rainier leaves plenty of room for those what want to take it a step further. Olympia and the famous Moonstone stylus upgrades are easily installed in the place of Rainier's stylus, providing increasingly wide frequency responses via reductions in the moving mass of the cantilever assembly.
To accommodate even more listeners, Sumiko has added to their lineup the new RS78 stylus (optional, sold separately), meaning that with Debut PRO's 78 RPM capability, there are few discs the machine can't spin. Now you can enjoy a shellac 78 RPM record within minutes.
8.6" Carbon/Aluminum Tonearm
The Debut PRO features a one-piece carbon/aluminum sandwich tonearm. The carbon layer gives the tonearm a high degree of rigidity, while the inner aluminum tube takes over the damping of the tonearm. This super stiff and uniquely dampened tonearm construction ensures perfect tracking of the record groove.
Adjustable VTA and Azimuth
With the new tonearm of the Debut PRO, both the azimuth and the vertical tracking angle (VTA) can be set. The tonearm height can be continuously adjusted by loosening two set screws. These settings give you the option of adapting the tonearm to height changes, allowing the use of different turntable mats or other cartridges to always achieve the best sound quality.
Nickel-Plated Metal Parts
The nickel finish of the aluminum components results in a hard, resistant surface. This process enables Pro-Ject to produce very high-quality and sustainable components and avoid plastics and similar materials that continue to age over time. The precision CNC-milled parts are aesthetically stunning and lead the Debut PRO to its modern, simple, elegant, and unprecedented design.
Always the Perfect Speed
An onboard Speed Box electronically guarantees accurate and stable speeds. Change between speeds easily with the flip of a switch. With the supplied round belt for 78 RPM, you can also listen to your shellac records (with appropriate optional RS78 stylus, sold separately). So that no motor vibrations reach the pickup, the Debut PRO has the new motor suspension, which is responsible for the perfect decoupling of the motor.
The Dampened Platter
The dampened platter was specially designed for the Debut PRO. It is die-cast from aluminum to offer the optimal balance of mass and damping. This massive platter is peripherally damped with a TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) ring on the bottom side. In addition to resonance damping, this ring adds extra mass, which in turn minimizes wow and flutter as the platter rotates.
30 years of Experience - Debut PRO
The Debut PRO brings an absolutely new design to Pro-Ject turntables. The audiophile turntable is convincing in all respects – not only visually, but more importantly also in terms of sound.
The Pro-Ject 1 and its successor, the Debut series, revolutionized listening to music. These products brought back the love of analog playback devices – a turning point for the vinyl industry.
The old technology has made a comeback and is here to stay. The Debut PRO is a milestone for the next decades: A cult product that celebrates the great success of analog music reproduction and the joy of stereo hi-fidelity in your home.
