Written by You can trust Louder
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When it comes to buying a new record player, your options have never been broader. This is both a blessing and a curse for the newer vinyl enthusiasts among us, as it creates a double-edged sword of potential; newer technological crammings have made today’s turntables more versatile than ever, and the jumping-on of dozens of budget brands has made it harder than ever to pick between them.
There is, of course, a rich central seam of reliable turntable manufacturers in the midst of this particular field, among which is much-lauded Austrian brand Pro-Ject.
Since the ‘90s, it’s been the word when it comes to sleek, minimal turntables that deliver the goods – and at tantalising price-points, too. The Pro-Ject T1 EVO BT is one such tantalising prospect, albeit at the upper bounds of what might be considered a budget turntable. Is it worth your attention?
Features
The key selling point for the Pro-Ject T1 EVO BT is, true to the name, its Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity. It’s wireless-capable, with aptX HD transmission – guaranteeing (at least, for compatible receivers) a base level of wireless fidelity that more-than passes the sniff test for casual hi-fi applications.
Though it’s named for its wireless connectivity, the Pro-Ject T1 EVO BT is a highly connectible piece of hi-fi brilliance. Not only is there an RCA phono out, for conventional connectivity to a phono preamp stage, but there’s also an RCA line output. This makes it even more beginner-friendly, enabling newer converts to the vinyl cause to hook up to a hi-fi amp without needing to spend more on a separate phono stage.
There’s something here, though, that Pro-Ject don’t shout about – and which other turntable manufacturers fall shamefully short on. The T1 EVO BT provides simultaneous output to both its wired outputs and to its Bluetooth output, meaning you can effectively play a record on three systems at the same time. This is ideal household stuff; you can be listening to the same vinyl in the kitchen, living room and outdoors, provided you’ve got one long-enough cable to reach the farthest wired destination – and without needing to buy fancy multi-zone hi-fi systems. I’ve not seen this elsewhere, and, to be honest, I’m a little stunned.
The sound fed to these various outputs comes via an Ortofon OM 10 cartridge, a decent enough moving-magnet cart from the entry-ish level of Ortofon’s OM series. The beautiful thing about it is that, like with Audio-Technica’s VM95 series cartridges, the styli are upgradeable.
If the OM 10 starts to show its flaws before long, particularly with an upgrade to your speakers, you’ll be able to buy the next one up for better sonic performance without having to replace the whole cartridge. As it stands, though, the OM 10 is comparable, if a little inferior, to the VM95E – a decent starting point, if a little underpowered for the price.
Design
Visual design is, really, where Pro-Ject excels. It’s a winning formula across Pro-Ject’s product range, of sleek plinths, sharp vertices and smart materials – and a formula which wins again here, thanks to the T1 EVO BT’s fancy frosted glass platter. I love this as a material decision; it’s equal parts aesthetic gloss and sheer practicality, being both high-mass and highly fetching.
The T1 EVO BT comes in three variants: black, white and walnut. I’m not the biggest fan of wood-veneer turntables – I think they’re inescapably dated, as far as design goes – but here, with my walnut-variant review sample in my room among my mid-century things, I don’t mind it so much. That austere design approach lends it a degree of gravitas, of which other turntable designs aren’t quite capable. But it’s not all about looks.
Despite the T1 EVO series still being very much in Pro-Ject’s budget-turntable bracket, I had some hopes that it would harbour some more, well, evolved design choices than those of its even-budgetier sibling which I reviewed last month, the new Pro-Ject E1.2.
Unfortunately, it seems the E1.2 series actually borrowed from here, with a lot of specs being actually quite comparable – and with the T1 being in possession of that same unsure three-footed base, that tips easily with upward force. That tri-foot design is meant to make levelling easier, but for my money it just makes using it harder. And for the money the T1 EVO BT commands, one essentially receives a glass platter and some slightly pricier electronics. At least installation is just as easy as the E1.2.
Sound
The first impression you get from the Pro-Ject T1 EVO BT is, unfortunately, not amazing. The motor has a quiet, but steady and quite whiney hum to it – one that’s worse on start-up, where it pitches up and then back down a bit, demonstrating the small struggle it seems to face with that glass platter.
We’re not here for torque, though – and fortunately, it’s sunlit uplands from here. Though it takes a moment to get up to speed, the T1 EVO BT’s motor is stable throughout, if left undisturbed. The Ortofon OM 10 is a perfectly capable little cartridge too, and even-handed enough to be fair to any of the heavier stuff in your collection.
I started out listening from the phono out, through my Vestax mixer’s phono stage and into my Cambridge Audio integrated amp. I was feeling uncompromising when I started my review, so first on the roster was Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra’s Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything, the much of which is a blooming mass of fuzzed-out guitars and insistent saturated violins. This is not a ‘high-fidelity’ record; it’s protest music, raw and fulsome – and the OM 10 handles its un-sanded edges uncritically.
Throughout, there is an impenetrable fug of low-end information, from blown-out bass and deep-dead drums, rendered in fullness. The quieter back-half of second track Austerity Blues is a quiet-clatter of choired voices, driven violins and saturated loops, and illustrates the T1’s simultaneous keenness for higher-end information.
For something a little more pristine, I gave Queens Of The Stone Age’s …Like Clockwork a crack. Josh Homme’s voice is a crooner’s delight throughout, revealing some great depth in the cart’s mid ranges. Drums are pleasantly thocky without being to emergent or sharp, as best evidenced by The Vampyr Of Time And Memory; transients settle, here. My God Is The Sun is a hugely impactful listen, if a little crammed in places.
Bluetooth took a little while to engage, but when it did, I was pleasantly surprised. Many analogue-forward folks have gripes with the idea of Bluetooth for vinyl transmission, but when it sounds as decent as the aptX HD transmission does here, I don’t think they have much to stand on. Even with less-saturated moments on Fuck Off Get Free, like the genuinely-upsetting Little Ones Run on the B-side, I couldn’t detect any undue colouration.
While we’re here, I had the opportunity to A-B the line and phono outputs using a DJ mixer, and giving me a chance to test that built-in preamp with a little more closeness. I will say it sounds to be a little on the brighter side, but this is by no means a bad thing; it just lends a little more to the slight treble preference the OM 10 cart professes – and perhaps even tames some of that uncritical low-end reproduction, particularly on thuddy masters like …Like Clockwork.
There are aspects to the Pro-Ject T1 EVO BT that I’m not the biggest fan of. The three-footed base is more nuisance than nous, and, despite being partial leg-up from its little-sibling E-line price-wise, it shares some construction and key specs in common. That said, its techy improvements are inarguable – and I can’t lie about how good it sounds when it’s left to its own devices, through any of the outputs you deign to use.
It’s audiophile-adjacency at its near-best; a strong performer, and one I was glad to get Homme-y with, but one likely to be overshadowed by turntables either side of its price.
The alternatives
If you’re cash-strapped, the Pro-Ject E1.2 series presents a similar value prospect to the T1 EVO BT; there’s not much practical difference, outside of certain individual downgrades. If you’re not altogether fussed about a built-in preamp, let alone an Ortofon cartridge, you stand to save a bunch on the base E1.2.
Elsewhere, Audio-Technica’s AT-LP70XBT is, again, cheaper. Though you lose in visual design smarts and overall mass, you gain an automatic mechanism, and a built-in cart that takes AT-VMN95-series cart upgrades. For the same as the T1 EVO BT, you could have a solid player with a top-flight micro-line stylus.
