After reviewing the ultra-high-end Clearaudio Master Innovation turntable system, a curious product came to my attention: a $499 turntable, albeit made by another large corporation, Pro-Ject Audio.
Austria-based turntable manufacturer Pro-Ject Audio has twelve series of turntables, which range from the $400 Hard Rock Café Primary turntable in the Artist Series to the $14,000 Signature 12 in the Signature Series. Some of the Series have as many as fifteen models, such as the aforementioned Artist Series, in which the highest priced model is the The Beatles’ White Album 2Xperience SB turntable at $1,800. Jukebox E, the subject of this review, is not the lowest priced model in the entire lineup. There is the lone Elemental turntable in the Elemental series for $229, and a Primary E for $225 in the Primary Series. It is interesting to see the multitude of affordable turntables, or as Pro-Ject puts it, record players, being offered at such low price points.
Of all Pro-Ject turntables, the Jukebox Series stands out as the only Bluetooth-enabled models —and they come equipped with an integrated amplifier. The Jukebox E, in particular, is capable of 50 watts of output into 8 ohms, features a silicon belt for damping, a low vibration synchronous motor and DC power supply, an 8.6-inch aluminum tonearm with sapphire bearings, and an entry-level Ortofon OM5e moving-magnet cartridge premounted. Round the back, jacks include Line Out, Phono Out, Line In and two pairs of five-way speaker binding posts. Decoupling feet and dustcover complete the package.
Pro-Ject even devised a remote control unit for POWER, MUTE, LOUDNESS, BASS+, BASS -, TRE+, and TRE-. Further features on the remote include TURNTABLE, LINE IN, VOLUME+ and VOLUME-. A BLUETOOTH button on the remote accesses the Bluetooth functionality when connecting to a Bluetooth player, such as those in smart phones. Under the front to the left are two rocker power switches. The first switch turns on the motor and thus the Jukebox E can be used as a pure turntable. The second switch turns on the onboard Bluetooth and amplification electronics. An LED display on the top panel of the turntable provides status. It doesn’t come with a record puck for hold down, and the motor is not powerful enough to pull along using the ones I have. Nonetheless, it is utterly incredible and mindboggling to have all this for a meager $499.
I placed the Jukebox E in a system consisted of the $399 Audioengine HPD6 bookshelf speakers on $50 Atlantic stands. I used Audio Note UK AN-SPx 27-strand silver speaker cables with banana connectors from the Jukebox E’s speaker terminals directly into the back of the speakers. Note that the company also offers the $299 Speaker Box 5, available in high gloss piano black, white or red, a supposedly ideal companion to the Jukebox E. Vinyl playback on its own was acceptable with good instrument placement although the gain was a bit low. Using its Line Out and routing the signal to an integrated amplifier, such as the $2,899 Wyred 4 Sound STI-1000 v2 class D stereo integrated amplifier, changed the narrative completely. Now the sound became eminently easy on the ears, and criteria such as tonal separation, dynamic contrast and spatiality emerged and were enjoyable.
Utilizing the LOUDNESS feature added overall presence to the music while increasing the gain, although I preferred using the BASS function instead to add weight to the presentation through the small speakers without also impacting the midrange and top-end. There were considerable limitations to the Jukebox E’s sound but picking it apart based on review criteria for a high-end turntable would be missing the point. The Jukebox E was created so that more people can have the joy of music, and not exactly to be used as reference.
The Pro-Ject Jukebox E’s Bluetooth playback is via its own speaker terminals and not possible through the Line Out function, which only outputs the cartridge signal and nothing else. Nonetheless, being able to play my favorite tunes from my iPhone 11 was a good dose of casual fun. And there were sufficient spatial cues to be enjoyed.
Bearing in mind that the volume control functionality only works via the speaker terminals, there is more fun to be had. I put an Oppo BDP-105D Blu-ray player’s RCA analog outputs into the Line-in RCA jacks of the Jukebox E and it was unreal. There was the expected big sound of SACDs, such as the soundtrack to Star Trek: Nemesis and the Esoteric remastered and reissued Grieg Peer Gynt excerpts, coming even from the HDP6. Again, adjusting the volume and having the BASS and MUTE functions available via remote control just added to the value of the package.
The Pro-Ject Jukebox E makes for a nice traditional turntable+tonearm+cartridge package for $499, highly competitive against similar offerings by similar-sized corporate manufacturers. Throw in a Bluetooth receiver, add a Line-In function, increase its value further by equipping the turntable with a 50 wpc amplifier, then add all sorts of tone controls, and finally make all functions controllable via a remote — that’s the Pro-Ject Jukebox E Bluetooth.
For the savvy-minded, Pro-Ject offers a complete Juke Box E HiFi Set that comes with the Jukebox E and the Ortofon OM 5E cartridge, Speaker Box 5, a spool of speaker cables with banana plugs and the Damp It rubber damping feet for use underneath the speakers. All for $999. Kudos to the marketing efforts that make audio affordable and fun.
Ladies and gentlemen, questions?
Copy editor: Dan Rubin
Review system:
Audio Reference Technology Power Distributor
Acoustic Sciences Corporation TubeTraps
Audio Note UK AN-SPx speaker cables
Oppo BDP-105D Blu-ray/SACD player
Wyred 4 Sound STI-1000 v2 class D stereo integrated amplifier
Audioengine HDP6 bookshelf speakers
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