Pro-Ject Classic EVO

The Classic EVO is a belt-drive turntable from Pro-Ject. It sits in an odd spot in the company's lineup, because it's the model that deliberately looks backward. Pro-Ject's own materials describe it as a reimagined version of The Classic - the EISA Award-winning deck - with ideas pulled from the 175 VPO, the Vienna Philharmonic Recordplayer. It has a two-piece plinth in a simple "frame" design, which recalls the suspended turntables of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Underneath, it's a modern machine.

The suspension is the interesting part. The vintage decks it resembles used springs. The Classic EVO floats its sub-chassis on TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) balls instead. The sub-chassis is described as heavier than the standard Classic's, and it carries a diamond-cut aluminium sub-platter running an inverted EVO bearing design with four ABEC7-spec ball races. The tonearm is a 9" carbon fibre and aluminium sandwich tube, mounted in a solid ring-type bearing housing with the outside ring left open to avoid resonances. The arm is fully adjustable, both VTA and azimuth, and has a TPE-damped counterweight. It accepts both moving magnet and moving coil cartridges. Speed changes for 33, 45 and 78 rpm are handled by an on-board push-button control. The chassis comes in two satin wood finishes, walnut and eucalyptus, and a dustcover is included.

A caveat for anyone reading spec sheets online. Listings for this model show it bundled with a wide range of cartridges - Sumiko Moonstone, Sumiko Amethyst, Ortofon 2M Silver, Ortofon Quintet Red - and the available documentation doesn't say whether these are factory options or dealer bundles. Treat any "included cartridge" claim with suspicion and check what a given unit actually ships with. The regular listed price was $1,999 USD. Production years aren't documented in the sources available here, and neither are dimensions, weight or measured performance figures. The record on this one is thin. It's a modern deck, not a vintage one, and the archive includes it for completeness rather than as a collector's item.