Pro-Ject is no stranger to special edition turntables, but its latest effort could be its most special yet. The name of The Classic Reference says it all – it's designed as a luxury benchmark against which all other high-end turntables should be judged. It's essentially a greatest hits piece, taking parts from Pro-Ject's Classic EVO and VPO 175 (built to celebrate the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's 175th anniversary) to create a stunning limited edition turntable.
It's engineered within an inch of its life. The EVO 9 ASHG tonearm features inverted cardanic Swiss ABEC7 quality bearings with four stainless steel tips, housed in a massive aluminium gimbal to increase stability. The S-shaped arm has internal damping and a removable headshell, while the flexible copper tonearm wire is paired with a gold-plated connector clip.
The heavy aluminium platter uses advanced Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE) to optimise resonance behaviour, with none of the ringing effect common to casted platters. The precision-machined platter is TPE-damped on the underside, and rotates on a precision-machined and balanced aluminium sub-platter, which heightens rotational stability and adds mass to the drive system, according to Pro-Ject.
Alongside the RCA jacks, The Classic Reference has standard-sized XLRs for balanced transmission of the kind seen in professional recording studios. Which should make for a stable connection that's free from interference, resulting in less noise.
Its power supply is designed specifically to run Pro-Ject turntables and phono preamps at the same time – The Classic Reference is assigned 15V, and the phono stage 18-20V. And Pro-Ject claims it offers a cleaner cable solution than another, non-optimised power source.
The Classic Reference is handmade in Europe and is available now in two finishes: Gloss Black / Silver ($5999, about £4600 / AU$9000) and Acacia / Bronze ($6999, about £5400, AU$10,650).
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