Does the job

No dampening.

Older Projet/One DR-700. Bought this to replace my old B&O. For the price I couldn't be happier. Using a Grado Black. Sound is great.

Simple beyond belief

No adjustability for speed, somewhat light weight cartridge connectors. Attached Oyster. If you want basic LP, it works pretty good. If you need socks blown off, upgrade it, and give the oyster to someone else.

It's kind of a non-event, I bought it to replace an aging dual with ortofon lm-20 cartridge. The sound was somewhat better, but, not the blow your socks off I was hoping for. So, I replaced the original Oyster with a Blue point. Yep. That was the ticket. The turntable's stongest point is that it pretty much tracks the right rpm, and there are no adjustments. People have crabbed about the anti-skate, but, I had a Lenco l-70 back in the 70's that had the same thing, and it worked, and it automatically adjusts for position on the disk. There is no adjustment for speed as it uses a synchro motor, but, US grid is pretty accurate on the frequency it produces, so, you aren't likely to hear any variation. Part of me wishes I had a direct drive (for bragging purposes), but, I don't think you are going to get better performance, especially for the price than you will get out of this rig.

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Lenco L70, Technics sl20, Dual 512

Ease of setup, simplicity. Nice entry level table for the money. It plays records.

Not the greatest cartridge. Felt mat is kinda cheap looking. Not exactly a 'tweakers' table.

This review is for the Pro-ject 1.2 by Sumiko, it is my first turntable. I considered pretty much every option from $50 to $500 dollars, but this table just seemed right. Set up was relatively easy (the cartridge was already installed). The anti-skate thing is a little cheesey, but it works, so I don't see a problem with it. I get very little hum or noise from this table, even with the volume cranked. The oyster cartridge isn't awe inspiring. If anything it sounds a little flat. Someone said that it seems to be designed to sound like a cd, and that description seems accurate to me. I will probably upgrade to something like a grado (red or blue) or an ortofon cartridge eventually. I'm not in a big hurry to upgrade though. For now, I'm spending my money on vinyl. I haven't had any problems with skipping, but I live in an appartment with concrete floors on the ground level. The way this TT is built it looks like it would be pretty sensitive to vibration, so if you have wood floors or whatever, it might take a bit of care to isolate this thing from vibration.

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None

Excellent value! Very good sound when paired with a good cartridge (Sumiko Oyster is good, but do yourself a favor and get the Grado Red). Fully adjustable tonearm (including VTA!). Good looks - minimalist design. Bottom line - best entry level "audiophile" turntable around!

Lightweight captive phono cables, with cheesy ends.

The Pro-Ject 1.2 is my first _real_ turntable, and I bought it to replace the old Marantz semi-auto direct drive (TT 4000) I had been using. In large part, my decision was based on other reviews I had seen on this site. After unpacking the unit, my inital observation was that it was pretty well built. Good heavy platter, solid plinth, a tonearm that was adjustable 9 ways from Sunday. As with some previous users, I was a little disappointed in the quality of the phono cables and interconnects. My left channel RCA plug doesn't go quite as far into its receptacle as the right one, but I can't tell that there is any decrease in sound quality as a result. Setup was a breeze, as the supplied Sumiko Oyster cartridge was already installed and ready to go. Compared to my old Marantz, I was very impressed with the sound this little turntable put out when I first plugged it in. Much lower background noise, more dynamic, with an much wider soundstage. I'm guessing that a lot of this is due to the suspended motor design, which keeps vibration to a minimum. Following the advice of some of the previous reviewers, I installed a Grado Red cartridge after a couple of weeks. All I can say is WOW! It totally changed the sound and personality of the turntable! A huge improvement, and highly recommended upgrade. The only further tweaking I have done was to build a sand-filled isolation box for the turntable. This cut down significantly on the vibrations I could feel on the plinth while playing an LP, and really tightened up the bass and widened out the soundstage a little more. I would recommend some dort of isolation platform for the turntable if you decide to purchase it, as the rubber feet don't really cut it in that department. Overall, I'll give this product 3 stars, as I think it performs very well for its price. I would reserve 4 and 5 star ratings in this category for much more expensive turntables. In the value department, though, the Pro-Ject 1.2 definitely gets 5 stars! Excellent value for the money, and a great way to get into vinyl!

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Older direct-drive turntables.

Sound. Build quality. Instructions also tell you on the last page how to re-package your unit for moving (albiet as a picture only)

The manual has several grammatical errors. It was not as hard to assemble as I thought but the manual was not so helpfull. You only need a small electronic phillips head scredriver to remove some screws. The belt ''key'' is not even mentioned in the manual. I struggled to know how to align the belt with the motor..best guesses seemed to work.

O.K. I haven't had a record player since '88 and that was an Onkyo combined with some NAD 3020 and Boston Acoustic speakers...Lately I've been in to Electronica and collecting vinyl even though I didn't have a player! Well, I didn't want some $$$$ player and I didn't want some wanna-be-a-dj deck. I considered the NAD unit, but FHM let me listen to the Pro-ject. Its 100 euro cheaper then NAD unit. Maybe I am losing my hearing, but with standard fitted Oyster cartridge, fiddling around with the balance, and feeding it through Pro-ject pre-amp to (yes) a Teac CR-H100 mini-system with Bose speakers...MAN! Its as clean as a CD sound but better!!! I love it! After one day I have already bought 100 bucks worth of vinyl to play on it...I am very happy.

Good build quality coming the Czech's Honest sounding deck, even better if you can afford to go with a quality cartridge. Considering it's an entry level turntable, this deck is starting to knock on Rega's door in terms of value for money plus performance !

That fiddly weight on a fishing line used to control anti-skate

I recently purchased the Pro-ject 1.2 turntable as a replacement for my old Dual 503-1 which was a secondary turntable. Despite the salesman's insistance that he could supply an Ortofon cartridge, I resisted and bought the deck bare. Yes, in Australia the Pro-ject turntables are sold without cartridge included in the advertised price and NO, I have nothing but praise for Ortofon cartridges - I just didn't like any of the entry level cartridges the retailer had to offer. Lucky for me, I found another Hi Fi shop that did a great deal for me on a Benz Micro MC20e cartridge. Setup of the turntable and cartridge was straight forward. Initially I was a bit concerned about the low mass of the Benz Micro, but as it turns out - it suits this arm more so than that of the RB300 arm on my Rega P3. Go figure ! I first played my Tracy Chapman album ( the first self titled one ) and almost fell out of my chair ! The sound, vocals and the space of the recording was magically reproduced in such detail and body. Still stunned, I changed over to a recently acquired copy of Santana's Abraxas on 180g vinyl and I was left with my jaw hitting the floor. Once again I was bowled over by the way this deck and cartridge was able to present itself. Having in the past favoured Rega and Dual, I can safely say that I now consider Pro-ject in the same light as I used to with the Dual turntables. Sure there are plenty of turntables out there that are miles ahead of this, but at what sort of $$$$$. If you discount the Pro-ject Debut, this 1.2 is really the entry level in Pro-ject turntables and for what is to be considered as an entry level deck, it plays far above it's entry level price. I would rate the Pro-ject 1.2 as a turntable offering people a taste of real Hi Fi at a budget price.( Like NAD's famous 3020 integrated amp ) At the money, the only mistake you could make is by choosing a cheap cartridge to fit to it.

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Value for money

Not enough new vinyl to play on this baby!

It was only weeks ago that I was looking for a home theatre system and was about to take the technology plunge when it occurred to me that there are so many 'standards' in the digital audio arena now, I wasn't about to invest in 5 seconds worth of cutting edge reproduction quality. I've decided to let the HDCD/SACD/DVDA wars decide a final victor, and then I'll be back. In the meantime, my audio dollars were burning a hole, so I went shopping for trusted technology - a turntable. The Pro-ject 1.2 was my choice, through some advice from audio magazines and a strict budget. I bought it fitted with an Autofon 10 catridge, and I took some time to set up the counterweight for a 'clean' sound, without too much vinyl stage noise. I'm delighted with the warmer soundstage, and the attention to engineering detail for which that the part of the world this product is from is renowned.

Plays great music for the price

Dust cover (I dont use it). Anti-tracking a bit old-fashioned, but it has worked well for me.

I bought my Project 1 (the original version) more than 10 years ago. I wanted something better than the cheap japanese players that many stores sold. After reading reviews and listening, I went with the project 1. At the time, it came with an Audio Technica cardridge, but I soon replaced it with a Ortofon MC15 Super. That combination plays the music with great confidence and enthusiasm. At the time of purchase, I had some cheap Pioneer speakers. Now I use AudioVector M3 Super (around $2100) and the turntable still sounds very good. Some reviews complains about the manual. At the time, mine was in German (!) and very, very basic. Make sure you let the store set the player up with the cardridge use choose. My system: Turntable Project 1 Amp Pioneer 656 Mk II Speakers AudioVector M3 Super CD Pioneer 6500 (on its way out, together with the amp)

Attractive simple design, quality for money, excellent bass.

Manual is lacking.

I did a lot of research before deciding on this unit. Pretty much came down to quality for the price. I am suitably impressed on every level with this unit. The proof was when I put on a copy of the Small Faces "First Step" LP. The track "Three Button Hand Me Down" has deeply resonant bass guitar and very fluid Hammond B-3 organ. The Pro-Ject gave very noticeable weight to the bass and the organ just screamed! No other table I've used has made this record sound as exciting. The Sumiko Oyster cartridge is decent, but you might consider an upgrade. Heartily reccommended for first timers and those coming back into the analog fold.

Cheap as compared to other turntables that sound this good!

Funky anti-skate deal using fishing line and a weight

This turntable really made my albums sing as compared to others that I have listened to. Good clean bass response, nice highs. The Pro-ject does not seem to be unstable to on
my tall entertainment center with not so solid carpet covered wood floor. I like so many others am looking for simpler better sounding music. I know that CD's are as simple as you can get, but they are also very sterile.The Project 1.2 will bring back that love for music you once had and even at $320.00 retail it's still a bargain

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