As good as its word, Pro-Ject has unveiled the new X1 turntable, a model that is handmade in Europe using high-quality materials and expensive technology.

So when this turntable Titan says its X1 is not cheap, it’s because Pro-Ject consciously did not want it to be the cheapest. The focus from the get-go was to make a quality vinyl-spinner that would keep its buyers happy for years.

This company ethos is a long way ahead of the many cheap and cheerless turntables that are prevalent in the mass market these days.

Pro-Ject describes these bottom end turntables as bereft of the solid engineering build quality a correctly designed model has in abundance.

A fair point. And one made by a turntable company that since its inception in 1991 has laboured hard and intelligently to ensure the return of the vinyl record to the market place.

When it began the X1 design, Pro-Ject put sound quality at the top of its bucket list because sound matters most of all to discerning music lovers.

So the drive system chosen for the X1 was the tried and tested belt system that has stood the test of time.

Features excluded from the X1 are Bluetooth, USB input, Automatic cut-off and a cheap phono stage.

What buyers get instead is a fully manual, belt-driven turntable with a properly machined resonance-free, heavy acrylic platter weighing 1.5 kg rather than an unremarkable pressed steel platter.

Part of the X1 package sees an MDF chassis that is more expensive than one cobbled together from particle board. A correctly shielded, symmetrical cable costs more than just a standard cable, and Pro-Ject opted for the former.

Cheap turntables often come bundled with a cheap cartridge. The X1 is supplied with a premium moving magnet made by Ortofon.

The X1 has a sophisticated motor suspension built for superior decoupling of motor vibrations to its tonearm and chassis.

The supplied tonearm is super stiff and made using a damped carbon/aluminium sandwich construction. It also has a better counterweight with a TPE damper to reduce cartridge/tonearm resonances.

The X1’s all-important platter bearing is made from stainless steel and has a soft brass bushing, and Teflon mirrors to deliver ultra-low rumble and noise.

The X12 has height adjustable, aluminium feet to reduce feedback while the finish uses eight layers of paint and is hand polished or sporting real wood, satin waxed veneer.

The X1 is available in walnut or high gloss black and white finishes.

Australian and New Zealand pricing have not yet been announced.

For more information visit Pro-Ject.