brotherly
New Member
Hey everyone, just writing a quick post to share my findings on Pro-Ject's The Classic. For those that don't feel like reading, I found the table be to incredibly overpriced and the quality control is spotty at best. I'm very disappointed. I'd love to hear some other opinions/experiences.
I was initially drawn to The Classic because of its aesthetics and specs. I read a few very glowing reviews of the table around the internet, and although the Ortofon 2M Silver cart that it ships with isn't the most praised cart in the world, I figured I'd be upgrading that eventually anyway. So I decided to pull the trigger.
At first, I was in love. It's a beautiful table and a breeze to set up. I don't love the dangling anti-skate counterweight system, but it works fine. It also requires you to manually change the belt placement to change speeds, but this isn't unusual, so I don't mind that at all. Anyway, I was up and running in maybe twenty minutes tops, and I was totally smitten.
Until the next day. I changed the belt from 33 to 45 and noticed some noise coming from the motor/spindle. Okay, I thought, no big deal, right? It's just a little hum. But when I put the platter back on, I could still hear the noise. And then I heard what sounded like the bearing scraping against the housing. So I took off the platter, double checked that the belt was in the right position, and tried again.
Still scraping and motor noise. An $1100 should not have any audible motor noise, period. I played around with it some more, but the noise just got worse from there.
In the end, I returned the table. I'm not keeping an expensive table that makes noise. I figured that maybe I just got a defective turntable, and ordered a replacement right away.
The second table does the same thing. The bearing scraping noise isn't as prevalent, but the motor hum/noise is. I don't know if this is just how these decks sound, but I'm incredibly disappointed. I can hear the very faint sound of the motor from 5 feet away in a quiet room. That's unacceptable.
There are some other minor things that I'm not impressed with. For example, using the RPM app on my phone, I found that it keeps speed right around 33.41 and 45.26 which is OK but not great, although it was pretty steady. I don't love the tonearm holder, which uses a little magnet to keep it in place. It didn't work very well on the first table, although it's much better on the second, but that's just another example of quality control issues.
Overall, it's a visually beautiful table. But I can't abide an expensive table with audible motor hum, no matter how nice it is otherwise. I've bought quieter tables for $50 at a yard sale. I'll be returning this second table, feeling very disappointed. I'll be trying the Soto Moonbeam next, unless anyone has any suggestions.
I was initially drawn to The Classic because of its aesthetics and specs. I read a few very glowing reviews of the table around the internet, and although the Ortofon 2M Silver cart that it ships with isn't the most praised cart in the world, I figured I'd be upgrading that eventually anyway. So I decided to pull the trigger.
At first, I was in love. It's a beautiful table and a breeze to set up. I don't love the dangling anti-skate counterweight system, but it works fine. It also requires you to manually change the belt placement to change speeds, but this isn't unusual, so I don't mind that at all. Anyway, I was up and running in maybe twenty minutes tops, and I was totally smitten.
Until the next day. I changed the belt from 33 to 45 and noticed some noise coming from the motor/spindle. Okay, I thought, no big deal, right? It's just a little hum. But when I put the platter back on, I could still hear the noise. And then I heard what sounded like the bearing scraping against the housing. So I took off the platter, double checked that the belt was in the right position, and tried again.
Still scraping and motor noise. An $1100 should not have any audible motor noise, period. I played around with it some more, but the noise just got worse from there.
In the end, I returned the table. I'm not keeping an expensive table that makes noise. I figured that maybe I just got a defective turntable, and ordered a replacement right away.
The second table does the same thing. The bearing scraping noise isn't as prevalent, but the motor hum/noise is. I don't know if this is just how these decks sound, but I'm incredibly disappointed. I can hear the very faint sound of the motor from 5 feet away in a quiet room. That's unacceptable.
There are some other minor things that I'm not impressed with. For example, using the RPM app on my phone, I found that it keeps speed right around 33.41 and 45.26 which is OK but not great, although it was pretty steady. I don't love the tonearm holder, which uses a little magnet to keep it in place. It didn't work very well on the first table, although it's much better on the second, but that's just another example of quality control issues.
Overall, it's a visually beautiful table. But I can't abide an expensive table with audible motor hum, no matter how nice it is otherwise. I've bought quieter tables for $50 at a yard sale. I'll be returning this second table, feeling very disappointed. I'll be trying the Soto Moonbeam next, unless anyone has any suggestions.
