I first met Pro-ject Audio in the late 90s, when I got familiar with their then top product, the Perspective, that impressed me so much for its striking price / quality ratio and, of course, for its outstanding audio characteristics.
I had the cance to listen for a long while to the 6.1, to the 6.9 and – if I’m not wrong – I had the small (in price) 1.2 under my hands as well. I’d say that by now I’ve got a clear picture of the production of this Austrian manufacturer: well designed and versatile products with no competitors in their price range.
Nowadays the turntable range has widened, getting richer both on the entry level side with the Debut and on the top side with the RPM Series, that include the excellent RPM9 I’ve been hearing great things about.
The model under test here belongs to the intermediate Pro-ject catalog range, specifically to the “Design Line” which includes products with a special eye-catching design. This line is made, apart from the already mentioned Perspective, of the 2.9 Wood’s brother – the Classic – that differs for its black lacquered finishing.

How it is built

This 2.9 wood is a very well crafted product both under an aesthetic and a build quality point of view. As it is Pro-Ject’s tradition, costs were cut only where it was possible to simplify without compromising the outcome, so that the customer doesn’t need to worry about his investment.

The chassis of the 2.9 – as its name implies – is made of wood (pear tree), really beautiful to see, matching the décor of my listening room perfectly. More, it gives to it that stylish touch that will make it welcomed by the female part of my family, more horrified than attracted by more than one famous turntable!
The chassis is a rigid design, with no damping elements of any sort, other than the de-coupling of the engine from the chassis itself. I must add that Pro-Ject produces turntables with both rigid and floating mounting solutions, so this is no ideological choice.
The platter is made of a metal/vinyl sandwich, slightly narrower than an LP and rather dampened. It’s provided with a clamp to be locked to the shaft in order to improve the record - platter coupling. All the gear is placed onto four, unfortunately not adjustable plastic-and-rubber feet.
To adjust the turntable horizontally I had therefore to fine tune the rack shelf spikes; not everyone has the chance to do so but you can’t expect to have everything in life...
The tone arm is the Model 9 by Pro-Ject itself, a 23 cm (8.8”) straight arm with integral shell, provided with an exact graded scale to set the playing weight. The anti-skating is a traditional string-counterweight one with three settings, and it proved to be very precise as well. On the rear of the chassis we can find the mains cord – not exchangeable unless one opens the machine – and a far more useful pair of RCA plugs that allow the user to choose the interconnect to the phono pre. The whole set is topped by a fine Plexiglas cover which can be removed when operating the turntable and that, apart from protecting the gear, makes it even more stylish to see. The finish is beyond reproach in this range of price.

In the listening room

I tested the 2.9 in my usual listening room, designed for favoring instead of disturbing and distorting the message coming from the loudspeakers, in the good company of my Toscanello, a cigar from Tuscany.
In the absence of a Toscanello, unfortunately, my concentrating ability stays rather poor - it’s a bit like if the uselessness of this practice helped me to concentrate myself on something external, like testing a new device. A kind of meditation technique…
System is as follows: reference record player Thorens Td 124 with Sme 3009 II tone arm and Shure N97xE cartridge; Galactron Mk2060 integrated amplifier; Sonus Faber Concertino speakers with their dedicated stands; DIY tube phono pre; Cablerie d’Eupen mains cords for the amplifier and the phono pre; Monster Cable and Van Den Hul signal cables, Van Den Hul power cables, Solid Steel electronics table.
On the object of our test I installed a Sumiko cartridge - the Pearl to be exact: a classic coupling, provided with reliable foundations.
I take place on my sofa after having laid the arm of the 2.9 wood with its sharp appendix on the grooves of Rosensfole by Agnes Buen Garnas and Jan Garbarek, ECM, and after several minutes I come aware that I left myself being pulled into an enraptured listening, devoid of audiophile reflections. Rather upset, I lit my cigar, restart the whole matter back and sit down again… but all happens once more and I get even more upset, more for the failure of the smoke than for the pointless time running away.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to get focused on the technical aspects of the machine for the whole evening.
And, this happened not because it wasn’t worthy – here’s the fun – but because of the peculiar involvement that this 2.9 Wood was creating between me and the wonderful record by Jan Garbarek. The fact is, it would be of minor importance to tell you about the excellent soundstage, the crystal-clear reproduction or the absolute cleanness of the cartridge / turntable / arm system, that turned out to be a true bull’s eye.
Sure my reference, The Supreme TD 124, shows a definitely superior dynamic, a better ease with the most complex passages, and a far more refined resolution; the soundstage reproduction is also superior under any point of view, it is more plastic, more contrasted and with a higher degree of realism. These are nevertheless just trivial reflections, belonging the Thorens TD 124 to another class of products, but they are helpful to get some indications about the absolute quality level reached by our 2.9 Wood.
The image of the soundstage reproduced into my listening room by this pleasing Austrian turntable is all the way alive, very shining; female vocals are solar and delicate, the male ones fascinating and very harmonious.
The set-up with the Sumiko Pearl is a very good one; this cartridge has on its side a rather dry and neutral character, with a clean and controlled bass range, not so rich in harmonics but rhythmically adept; one can find the same character in the mid-high range, fluid and well controlled, with no special effects or hisses to annoy one’s ear. The Wood seems to support all the positive aspects of the Sumiko, producing a balanced and convincing synergy; a quick test with the Shure N97xE mounted on the Pro-ject arm didn’t bring to the same convincing result, with a far less precise and controlled bass somehow detached from the rest of the frequency range.
The 2.9 Wood strong points are the neutrality in reproduction, with no strong characterization at any frequency range; and in the dynamics that – if backed by a proper amp set – reach remarkable levels. Last, but not least, the information richness runs circles around more than one digital source.
I won’t go further into this to avoid throwing into the dustbin the whole CD collection earned by the sweat of my brow - unfortunately this happens to me quite often when facing an analog source of this level.
Putting it against the reference turntable/arm system, more than for a comparison with the machine under test, proved helpful for an analysis of the possible set-ups among bases, arms and cartridges, that are always very critical in the analog world. The results allow to figure out the option of matching some cartridges even better than those used for this test, with a warranty that the Pro-Ject will be capable of using them at the best of their advantage (under this regard, thorough actual tests are recommended).

Conclusions and summary

Several months of listening sessions left me some further certainty. The certainty of having in my hands a truly well crafted product, with a character that is after all easy to match to the rest of the system, though with some tricks to keep in mind. The Pro-ject 2.9 Wood likes neutral and vigorous amplifiers, dry cartridges though precise and well balanced, even large volume speakers and, should you have a tube phono pre-amp, don’t hesitate to try them together. The potential owner of a 2.9 might well be a newbie analog lover or a lazy audiophile not keen to spend hours in the setup of a system he will be listening to for fifteen minutes. Not advised to those who consider simplifications a defect and a limit. A winning buy in the quality entry level range; you can find something better only spending much more money , but it will be anyway difficult to find an object that will get the job done under the engineering, sonic and - often overlooked - aesthetic point of view. This object is an investment under all aspects. In my opinion it is suitable for high class cartridges, even MCs. I would suggest changing its arm only if one is ready to spend a remarkable amount of money and after he / she’s thoroughly verified the set-up.
With the possible exception of the new Thorens products I have not listened to, I think the competitors can’t enjoy peace of mind.