Pro-Ject Debut Pro S and Vinyl NRS Box S3 Announced
Pro-Ject's Debut Pro S improves on last year's Debut Pro turntable released to mark the brand's 30th anniversary, while the Vinyl NRS Box S3 promises to rid the snap, crackle and pop of your worse-for-wear vinyl.
The Debut Pro S from Pro-Ject premiered at Munich's High End show in May this year and keeps many of the innovations enjoyed by the Debut Pro with added flexibility for those vinylistas who like to change between phono cartridges.
Replacing the Pro's 8.6-inch straight aluminium and carbon fibre tonearm, and giving the new deck its name, is a 10-inch S-shaped tonearm with an effective length of 254mm. Its aluminium tube is mounted into a precision-milled bearing housing, which sits atop a mounting plate that allows for VTA adjustment. Furthermore, its SME-type connector enables easy switching between headshells, so you can quickly swap in different cartridges if you have stereo and mono carts or have favourites depending on the genre. However, the Debut Pro S comes fitted with a Pro-Ject Pick-IT S2 C cartridge.
The new tonearm necessitates a larger (145 x 462 x 345mm (HxWxD)) MDF main chassis finished in satin black. The Pro's diamond-cut aluminium sub-platter and three height-adjustable, damped metal feet remain, with the onboard AC drive decoupled from the main chassis by a mounting plate with TPE-damped fixing points. The result promises minimal interference with Pro-Ject stating a 68dB signal to noise measurement. Wow & Flutter is quoted as 0.16% at 33RPM and 0.14% at 45RPM.
Adding to the faff-free set-up, the Pro-Ject Debut Pro S comes with a dust cover and Connect-IT E phono cable.
Finally, if you have some 'classic' vinyl either passed down to you or from your misspent youth that has signs of attending numerous parties, Pro-Ject's Vinyl NRS Box S3 could be the remedy. This clever unit promises to remove the crackles, pops and other unwanted noise that hard-worked records can have and make them sound almost as good as new.
The Vinyl NRS Box S3 sits between your phono stage and amplifier. A clever 24-bit / 96kHz digital signal processing algorithm cleans up the sound before it hits your amp and speakers. Moreover, you can not only control how much 'De-Crackle' is employed, but you can keep it plugged in even when playing freshly minted records; all you have to do is push the button to activate its galvanic bypass function and remove it from the signal chain.
The Pro-Ject Debut Pro S (£799) and Vinyl NRS Box S3 (£289) are available now.
Visit Pro-Ject for more information
Jay Garrett
StereoNET’s resident rock star, bass player, and gadget junkie. Jay heads up StereoNET as Editor for the United Kingdom and Europe regions. His passion for gadgets and Hi-Fi is second only to being a touring musician.
Posted in: Hi-Fi
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