This article is on two brand-new turntables from our friends at Pro-Ject Audio Systems. They are the Debut EVO 2 and the T1 EVO. Pro-Ject turntables have been a long-term favorite at Audio Advice, especially models like these, which offer a ton of great performance features for their fairly modest cost. In this article, we will go over what makes these so special to help you understand why you might want to consider one of these for your vinyl playback system, and we hope to help you understand if the Debut EVO 2 is worth its extra cost for your needs.

If anyone in the audio business ever had access to a secret crystal ball, it surely would have been Heinz Lichtenegger, the founder of Pro-Ject Audio Systems. Way back in 1991, in the true heyday of CDs, as vinyl had been pronounced DOA, he started a company in Austria intending to make affordable turntables. Fast forward over 30 years, and Pro-Ject Audio Systems is one of the largest manufacturers of turntables in the world, with their design facility in Austria and factories in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

The only complaint we have about their lineup is that there is an overwhelming number of choices, with 46 different models ranging from $299 to $14,999 as of this article. Of course, our task as your trusted source for the best in home audio and home theater is to analyze their offerings and call out the models we feel are the best values for those of you wanting a better vinyl experience. And these two new models certainly fit that bill!

Based on the price range of the T1 EVO and EVO2, many of you reading this may be considering your first high-quality turntable. Vinyl has become such a popular hobby in the last few years, with many people jumping in with a budget turntable and then going on a vinyl shopping spree. It is a ton of fun to hunt down your favorite artists on vinyl, but as you may have found, it does not take long to have a pretty sizable investment in your vinyl collection. This is why it is so important to own a turntable that will not harm and do justice to your expensive and growing collection.

If you are just getting started, please feel free to browse our turntable buyers guide, which is a great resource for learning everything you need to know about turntables. Our team at Audio Advice is full of vinyl fanatics, and we are here to help with any questions about which models are best for your system. We have great after-purchase support for any setup questions you might have.

The grooves that contain all the music on a vinyl LP are microscopic in size, and you certainly do not want a close-and-play turntable causing permanent damage to those precious grooves that are full of great music. Higher-performance turntables are made to take good care of your records so you can get a lifetime of use from them.

With the average price of a new vinyl LP being about $25, you only need to have 20 in your collection before you have spent more than the price of a very high-quality turntable like the T1 EVO we will cover in this article. We hope that no matter what turntable you decide to go with, you will pick one that will not harm your records.

The ultimate goal of any high-performance turntable is to extract every bit of music from the grooves of your records without adding anything that might compromise the audio signal. Since turntables are mechanical, analog devices, many things need to be done right to get the most from your records. The phono cartridge is where it all starts, as that is the device that actually pulls the sound from your vinyl. The quality of the cartridge itself can have a big impact on your sound, but the turntable must be able to support the cartridge, allowing it to get all of that information. The tonearm is the part of a turntable the cartridge is attached to and must not add any resonances to the sound while at the same time holding the cartridge perfectly in the groove with no added friction from the tonearm bearings.

The other critical parts are the motor, platter, and platter bearing, which should be designed to spin your record at a very consistent speed. Then, finally, you want your turntable to be isolated as much as possible from external vibrations that might color your sound. You can help your turntable in the isolation area by not putting it right next to or on the same shelf as speakers that might have a lot of bass energy.

So, how do these two new Pro-Ject turntables stack up in these critical areas? Let’s dive in and have a look.

We love the simple look of the T1 EVO, and you’ll have three finish options of gloss black, satin white, and satin walnut. It uses a one-piece aluminum tonearm and comes with the very popular Ortofon OM10 moving magnet phono cartridge. Ortofon is a very old Danish company that specializes in phono cartridges. The OM10 has been an audiophile favorite as a great budget phono cartridge for many years. It comes premounted and perfectly aligned on the Pro-Ject tonearm, with even the counterweight set up for the correct tracking force, making it really easy to get things set up. Even though this is at the lower price range for Pro-Ject turntables, the tonearm feels first class with friction-free bearings that seem really solid for the cost of this turntable. Part of this is simply economies of scale. When you sell more turntables than almost any company in the world, you can put in some great tech if you plan to make thousands of these like Pro-Ject will.

On all turntables, the part that the tonearm and platter are mounted to is called the plinth. In this case, it is the black rectangular part to which the tonearm and platter are mounted. With the T1 EVO, you get a CNC-machined plinth designed to minimize resonance. Even the feet are designed with a special material to keep external vibrations away from the plinth. We do wish they were adjustable to make leveling easier, but you can’t get everything at this price.

The motor is mounted to the plinth with isolators to again reduce any possible vibrations. This drives a heavy 8mm thick glass platter. Heavy platters give you better rotational stability for speed consistency, which is another plus. Of course, if the platter sat on a subpar bearing, none of that would matter, but in the case of the T1 EVO, Pro-Ject pulled some tech from their more high-end turntables here, giving you a great bearing. The subplatter the glass outer platter sits on is very similar to the subplatter on some of the Debut tables and has a bearing assembly machined to within .001mm tolerances.

There are three versions of the T1 EVO. The difference is that for $50 more, you can get the T1 EVO Phono and get a built-in phono preamp purposely made to match up with the Ortofon OM10. If you already have a system with a phono preamp, you can save the $50 and go for the one without, but the built-in version is perfect for powered speakers or cases where your gear does not have a phono preamp. And it is even defeatable should you want to improve things down the road. Finally, the T1 EVO BT is the T1 version with a built-in phono stage and Bluetooth.

Another thing we want to call out is the quality of cables you get with the T1 EVO. These are the Connect It E cables, which are $60 if you purchase them separately. Many turntables in this price class have some pretty inexpensive cables. It is great to see Pro-Ject include some very nice ones specifically designed for a phono signal.

All in all, at either the current $449 or $499 with the phono preamp, the T1 EVO is one heck of a great turntable for those of you looking to move to a better vinyl experience while getting a turntable that will take good care of your records.

So why would you spend $250 more to get the EVO 2? That is what we will go over now.

Pro-Jects' more expensive Debut Pro S turntable uses a special platter that is CNC machined from aluminum, and each one goes through a balancing process for better rotational stability. They then machine a ridge into the outer part of the platter and fill it with TPE, which damps out resonances and gives the platter a better flywheel effect. And as you guessed, this is the platter you will find on the Debut EVO 2.

At Audio Advice, we love well-machined tonearms, and the Debut EVO 2 has one special arm! While it is the same length as the one on the T1 EVO, it is a one-piece carbon fiber build and uses the same tonearm bearing block as the more expensive Debut Pro. It has much more mass and far better bearings for even less friction. And even the counterweight is designed to reduce resonances with TPE isolation built in. All of these factors allow the cartridge to pick up those micro details that make your music more involving.

The cartridge itself is also a big jump-up. Pro-Ject worked with Ortofon to design a brand new model just for this tonearm called the Pick It MM EVO. It is made to be the perfect match for the mass of the tonearm on the Debut EVO 2. Speaking of its mass, for those of you into this, it is 10 grams, which means you could later upgrade to a moving coil phono cartridge as long as it has fairly high compliance.

For the connections on the rear, the EVO 2 does not have a built-in phono preamp option like the T1 EVO but does have much more solid surface mounted RCA connections for the included high-quality phono cable.

It also has another connection option you could upgrade to in the future that would make it even better. The signal level of a phono cartridge is extremely low compared to that of a music streamer or CD player. With a very low signal, there is a chance for noise to get into the cable that connects the turntable to an amplifier. The EVO 2 has an option to upgrade to a balanced system, which, by its design, eliminates noise. This would require a different phono cartridge, a different cable, and a phono preamp capable of handling a balanced signal, but the EVO 2 is the least expensive turntable on the market to offer this cool upgrade.

And finally, you get ten color choices with the EVO 2, which is more than we have seen for any turntabl,e and we must say they all have a beautiful 8-coat finish.

As you can see, it is pretty clear the Debut EVO 2 is a better turntable than the T1 EVO. But the real question is, which is better for your system? Either one will take fine care of your valuable vinyl collection, with the bottom line being that the EVO 2 just flat out sounds a lot better than the T1 EVO. However, if you are going from a very inexpensive turntable to the T1 EVO, you will likely be blown away by how much better it sounds.

It really comes down to how far you want to take your listening experience and that becomes a matter of balancing how your system is put together. The turntable, your choice of amplifier, your speakers, and even the acoustics of your room all play a big role in your ultimate sound quality. This is where our passionate team of music lovers can help you out in making the best decision for your budget and future system.

We will say though, if the turntable is a source that creates the music that your system will play back. If small details in your music that make it more involving are not picked up by your turntable, even the most expensive speakers and amplifiers in the world can not create those missing audio nuances from thin air.

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