The Cheltenham Branch have just taken delivery of the new Project Classic Turntable. Designed by Project for their 25th Anniversary the aptly named Classic has taken design inspiration from 1960/70s classics such as the Thorens and Linn.

The Classic is a two plinth design allowing the motor to be well isolated from the main bearing and arm greatly reducing the transfer of mechanical and electrical energy produced by the motor. Rather than using springs for the suspension (renowned for causing set up issues) the Classic utilises Thermo Plastic Elastomers to isolate the two plinths. This not only offers excellent isolation and anti resonance properties but also allows easy set up straight out of the box. We had our demonstration deck up and running and sounding fantastic in two minutes.

Kung Fu Hamster hasn't seen a spinning wheel like this before!

The deck is supplied with a newly designed tonearm with some radical design concepts. The arm tube is constructed of a composite sandwich material comprising of carbon fibre and aluminium. The carbon fibre offers excellent rigidity and reduced mass while the aluminium provides excellent damping. A new ultra low friction bearing assembly is used enabling excellent tracking. Even the the nickel counterweight is TPE damped to reduce resonances. The arm has full VTA (Vertical Tracking Angle) and Azimuth adjustment allowing easy cartridge change / upgrade.

Kung Fu Hamster takes a closer look at the Pro-ject Classic platter

The deck is supplied with an Ortofon 2M Silver moving magnet cartridge. This allows the Classic to perform to a very high standard out of the box but with the quality of components utilised in the deck a cartridge upgrade is a great opportunity in the future.

LISTENING
To audition the Project Classic we set it up with a Rega Elicit amplifier using its excellent on-board phono stage and coupled this with a pair of Neat acoustics SX2 Loudspeakers. We played a wide range of vinyl and achieved excellent results with all types of Music.

Phil Collins - I don't Care Anymore (Hello I must be Going Album):
The Classic provided excellent bass weight and control. The drums were extremely tight and fast and at no time did the sound become confused. Information retrieval was very good with an excellent soundstage. At no time did the deck become confused.

Helen Watson - You're not the rule (Blue Slipper Album):
The Classic offered a great sense of timing. The sound was exceptionally tuneful and for such a complicated piece of music at no time did the classic get confused or appear to lose detail. The vocals were portrayed with excellent realism and emotion.

Stanley Jordan - Eleanor Rigby (Magic Touch Album):
This gave a superb sound stage with a great sense of openness and clarity. The attack on the strings was easily heard and again we were surprised how a deck at this price point held everything together. In fact my biggest problem listening to this track was concentrating on the deck rather than the music as the Classic made it sound so involving.

CONCLUSION
Overall this record deck offers outstanding sound quality for such an affordable price. It offers superb build quality and standard of finish. It is easy to set up and integrate into virtually any hi-fi system. It also offers the opportunity to upgrade with the addition of a better cartridge. The Ortofon 2M Silver offers great sound when purchased with the deck but a future upgrade will reap great benefits. Overall we cannot recommend this record player highly enough and would strongly advise a demonstration if you are in the market for a turntable at this price point.

We look forward to seeing you in the near future and be rest assured if you come in for a demonstration you will be given a warm welcome. (And tea and coffee).

Jon, Farid and Andy

Click here to read more about the Pro-ject Classic Turntable tech specs and customer reviews.

Pro-ject turntables and Hi-Fi products are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Manchester, Online, Oxford, Portsmouth, Preston Reading, Swansea, Swindon