NEWS: Pro-ject lets Genie 2 out of the bottle

Pro-ject has announced an upgrade to its award-winning budget turntable, the Genie. As well as bringing the production of the deck enteirely 'in-house', the company has made a number of internal and external upgrades to the Genie 2.

This turntable will be made in Pro-ject's factory – we're presuming this is the one in Litovel, east of Prague – unlike the previous incarnation and will also feature one of the company's own tonearms.

Naturally enough Pro-ject is confident that this more totalitarian approach to the manufacture of its turntables will prove fruitful, and help the Genie 2 to follow in the illustrious footsteps of the Xpression, Debut and RPM models.

But there are component upgrades to this turntable, too. The power supply has been upgraded from 12V to 16V and there's a new Pro-ject motor on board as well as on board power switching. That tonearm we mentioned previously is the Pro-ject S shaped single piece, while there are now sapphire arm bearings and harder main bearings.

To cap it all the Genie 2 has been given a more literal lick of paint thanks to a new 'superior paint finish'. Perhaps it's a double coat? All this sounds very nice, which is why we're pleased to be expecting imminent delivery of the new Genie.

Available soon in a matt black finish, the Genie 2 will retail for around £140.

Joe Cox
Content Director

Joe is Content Director for T3 and What Hi-Fi?, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for more than 15 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff, and the Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).