Pro-Ject The Classic Reference Turntable

A true reference turntable
Pro-Ject Audio Systems became famous for its excellent sounding, simple yet audiophile turntables. No frills and no unnecessary cosmetics – just high-quality materials and high-tech technology. Over the years, more and more Pro-Ject lovers demanded higher quality turntables with more spectacular luxury finishes. Since Pro-Ject has the skills and technology to do this, they started to develop real luxury products such as the Signature Line models.

One of the highlights of the Pro-Ject portfolio was the extraordinarily musical sounding and fantastic looking "175 VPO" turntable for the 175th anniversary of the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Pro-Ject used the original wood and metals of the original musical instruments to produce only 175 units. These are now sought-after and sought-after collector's items.

With the new The Classic Reference, Pro-Ject is now bringing back this beautiful design. Not with instrument parts, of course, but of similar beauty and with the latest technology. The new The Classic Reference combines technical finesse and a luxurious design like no other turntable in its class. It is based on The Classic EVO and the experience Pro-Ject gained in designing and building the legendary "175 VPO" turntable.


Platter & Bearings
One disadvantage of most old designs was the platter. Cast platters were all heavy (which is good for speed consistency and low wow and flutter), but suffered greatly from ringing effects, which in turn led to sound coloration. The heavy aluminum main platter uses modern thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) to optimize resonance behavior. And the main bearing design used here is a similar system to that of the Vienna Philharmonic record player.

High-end tonearm
The Classic Reference is equipped with the EVO 9 AS HG tonearm. This tonearm uses an inverted gimbal bearing in Swiss ABEC 7 quality with 4 stainless steel tips. The bearing sits in a heavy aluminum housing, which provides the necessary stability. The solid outer ring is open to avoid resonances. For the EVO AS tonearms, Pro-Ject uses a special S-shaped aluminum tube with the highest internal damping, paired with an SME headshell. The internal wiring is made of flexible high-purity copper, which is an optimal conductor for the very small phono signal. Each inner cable is equipped with a gold-plated connection clip for the pins of the pickup.


The upgrade for your phono setup
Your phono setup requires a clean and stable power supply. The included power supply is already a good basis, but you can go further. You can connect both your record player and your phono preamplifier to the Power Box RS2 Phono and benefit from the perfect power supply. The Power Box RS2 Phono is compatible with all Pro-Ject phono boxes and every 15 V DC Pro-Ject record player.

The image of the sound stage, the blackness of the background (and thus the dynamics) and the fine resolution of tiny sound details are improved, which leads to a significant increase in the overall playback quality.


True Balanced XLR output
The new The Classic Reference offers classic RCA and additional balanced XLR output sockets. Balanced audio connections are usually known from professional areas such as recording studios or live concerts. A stable and interference-free connection from your record player to the phono preamplifier is very important, as external signal interference such as microphonic influences and electromagnetic interference are later greatly amplified by the phono preamplifier and significantly impair the sound. The great advantage of a balanced connection is the ability to remove noise and interference picked up "on the way".


High-quality phono cable
A cable must ensure that every detail and every piece of information in the signal is transmitted to the corresponding receiving device. Using a poor cable can affect your entire hi-fi system. The Connect it Phono E RCA supplied is a high-quality cable optimized for phono. With the fully balanced Pro-Ject phono cables you can further increase the transmission and sound quality and benefit from the unique True Balanced Connection technology.


Optional: Limited Edition MC cartridge
The Classic Reference is optionally available with a hand-selected VPO Anniversary cartridge. The sound of this special system was fine-tuned together with members of the Vienna Philharmonic and is built by Ortofon in Europe to our specifications. The housing of the pickup system is made of a highly damping alloy and has been carefully polished to match the surface of the turntable.