We first encountered SRM Tech when the company sent its Arezzo deck in for review. It won a Best Buy Award and went on to win Best Turntable up to £1,000 in our 2009 Awards issue.

The new Athena turntable tested here is also built from transparent acrylic and has seen a number of revisions in recent times.

This attractive turntable is very well finished and comes complete with a modified Rega RB251 arm for a very competitive price considering its handmade nature.

Well-damped

The Athena is made from a slab of 10mm acrylic that sits on three spiked feet and holds the motor and three Sorbothane isolators, these support the top slab which incorporates the platter bearing and tonearm. It's a simple, but well conceived design that uses the resonance-damping properties of acrylic and Sorbothane to minimise energy transfer from the supporting surface to the platter.

The platter is 10mm acrylic and this sits on a damping layer, then a vinyl polymer subplatter, which is driven by twin belts from an aluminium pulley. Putting the belts on is a little fiddly and this would make changing speed a bit slow but it's an interesting approach.

Another unusual feature is that the on/off switch is a separate item that links to a wall-wart power supply and the motor via fairly long cables – you could almost put the switch a couple of metres from the deck if you wanted.

The EL-1 arm has three small mods: the counterweight has a ring of synthetic polymer to dampen it; the counterweight stub is filled with sorbothane and the finger-lift on the headshell has a shrink fit covering for a bit more damping.

Competitive package

This is a well-built and finished turntable for the asking price; the polished chrome spikes and top caps, plus the decent-quality motor and bearing all confer a degree of confidence in its reliability and longevity.

The free range on/off switching is a little untidy, but doesn't slide around as you might expect and if you add the Athena Isolation Platform (£69), it can sit underneath this and the wires won't show. This platform is very good value and its polished black form looks great under the turntable.

The EL-1 arm mods are simple and, in the case of the polymer ring, a little inelegant but undoubtedly worthwhile. All-in-all it adds up to a competitive package that should hold its own against the big names in the budget turntable market.

The right match

All that resonance damping pays off with a calm and resolute sound that's almost at odds with the turntable's light weight and physical transparency. One tends to expect lighter turntables to have a busy, exciting if not necessarily relaxed sound, but the Athena is commendably even-handed.

It's particularly strong on texture, which to an extent is because there is an emphasis on the midband. Adding the Isolation Platform goes a long way to addressing this by beefing up the bass and adding real gravitas, the mid also improves thanks to stronger contrast and better dynamics.

Personal audio

We were pleasantly surprised by the Athena, it has an assurance that belies its appearance and a degree of detail resolution that puts it among the front-runners in this price range.

There is a hint of the acrylic sound in its balance, but less so than with many alternatives thanks to the careful use of damping. It times well, too and can reproduce the scale of a recording with little difficulty.

This keenly priced Athena should do a lot to establish the company in the turntable market, because it looks and sounds remarkably good for the money.

Pro-Ject's founder Heinz Lichtenegger is no longer satisfied with just cornering the budget market, he's now set his sites on the turntable high end and his latest weapon, the RPM10.1, is a substantial and shiny beast.

Heinz is a classical music lover and this turntable directly addresses one of the key issues with such music on vinyl: trackability. The RPM10.1 comes with not one, but four alternative counterweights, which are supplied so that the arm/cartridge resonance can be kept totally under control in order that the system can track anything you throw at it.

Pro-Ject has also produced a test disc and by combining the two you can establish which counterweight gives the best tracking and thus the least distortion.

0 to 90

The canon in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture requires the highest stylus acceleration on record at 90μm – a rate with which most moving coils struggle to cope, yet Pro-Ject's engineers have managed to get an MC to track its test disc at 100μm.

Lichtenegger is quick to point out, though, that there is more to a great turntable and arm combination than theoretical tracking ability. He appreciates that setting up turntables well requires more than a test disc, but is clearly aiming to bring a little bit of science into the process.

The RPM10.1 is a revision of the RPM10, but quite a significant one. There are two key differences: one in the base, or Ground It Deluxe 3 (which is the rectangular slab that supports everything) and the other in the tonearm.

The Ground It incorporates magnetic decoupling through its four adjustable feet and provides a literal physical ground on account of its 13.4 kilogram mass. The 10cc version of the Evolution arm has had a lot of attention applied to controlling resonance and Pro-Ject has used more carbon fibre in a tighter weave than the previous incarnation. It has also incorporated Sorbothane damping in the four counterweights, each of which covers a range of cartridge weights ie: 4-6g, 5-8g etc, but there is some overlap between them.

In other respects this 10-inch arm is made of a single piece of carbon fibre with a conical shape, in order to combat standing waves. The bearing is an inverted type that uses ABEC7 ball races in a substantial ring-shaped housing for maximum rigidity.

You can adjust armbase height in order to vary VTA and the armtube can be rotated so that azimuth can be changed. As with most Pro-Ject tonearms, the arm wiring is terminated in a pair of RCA phono sockets, so that alternative cables can be used to connect with the amplifier.

The rest of the RPM10.1 is hardly less substantial than the Ground It, the plinth is made of 63mm-thick MDF, with the same dark-grey gloss finish as the base. It sits on three sorbothane-damped aluminium cones and incorporates the armbase and a magnetically supporting inverted bearing for the platter.

This part is 60mm-thick and made of acrylic, but is described as 'a sandwich construction' which seems odd as it's clearly one-piece, albeit one five-kilo-plus piece that's topped off by a brass record puck.

The motor is effectively freestanding and sits atop a piece of metal of the same diameter and finish. Pro-Ject supplies a spacer device so that it can be placed the correct distance from the platter and connected by a thin square-section rubber belt.

On/off switching is atop the motor and speed-change a case of switching pulleys.

Every picture…

The pictures do not lie: this is a superbly finished turntable with plenty of attention to detail and the tonearm is particularly inspiring, thanks to the chunky bearing housing, although the thread and weight anti-skate system seems a shade old-school these days.

There's no doubt that Pro-Ject offers excellent value for money in its turntables and this is just as apparent here, as it is with its budget models. Next to the Well Tempered Simplex, it looks twice the price, but as we know great record players are about more than scale and finish.

Our current favourite in this price range is the Michell Gyro SE, which is equally impressive for the level of sheer engineering it delivers. But high-mass designs are always more expensive than conventional ones.

This price sector is becoming one of the most hotly contested, with a number of established designs being available with and without a tonearm. From the Gyro SE (£1,450) including a TecnoArm to the Townshend Rock 7 sans arm and Well Tempered's relative newcomer the £1,495 Simplex with its damped golf-ball arm bearing. The latter two have a technological advantage, while the Gyro SE is a well executed suspended design at a great price.

The RPM10.1 on the other hand offers good isolation, thanks to its Ground It base and combines a truly evolved tonearm with a range of counterweights that offer a real advantage in resonance control.

Feel the quality

All that mass in the platter confers a certain stability to the sound of this turntable; we fitted a van den Hul Frog LO moving coil into its carbon-fibre arm and used the supplied interconnects to connect it with a Trichord Dino+ phono stage and got a smile-inducing result.

Tom Waits picked a very fine band for the album Swordfishtrombones and this turntable certainly brings out the quality of the recording, with plenty of acoustic around the percussion and double bass.

The tiny fingerlift is a bit tricky to drop into inner grooves, but the lift/lower device can be used for this purpose, while the arm is notably microphonic when you move and dock it in the clamp. This is not a problem while playing, however, and where resonances are higher, this is not necessarily a bad sign.

There is very little sense of the 'halo effect' that can challenge acrylic platters because of the deck's mass and clamp and while it's not the most luxurious-sounding turntable around, it's pretty damn smooth – capable of delivering weighty, tuneful bass which helps to create good image depth. In fact, the bass can be sumptuous when the record delivers the goods.

Rickie Lee Jones' Flying Cowboys does it with a chewy bass guitar beneath and a crisp high-hat up top, while another track reveals superb string tone above a beautifully timed bottom end. This is a classy turntable no doubt about it.

We investigated the benefits of the Ground It base by using the turntable both with and without a Custom Design stand. It certainly proved its worth by allowing the RPM10.1 to deliver a considerably more open sound that lifts and separates in true 'cross your heart' style. The bass gets a lot more room to breathe in and you can hear distinctly more fine detail across the range.

It's a contender

With its comprehensive approach to cartridge set-up and the efforts put into keeping resonance at bay with the Ground It base, this Pro-Ject is clearly a sophisticated beast. A state of affairs that's reflected in a resolute and engaging sound.

Whether it would better our recent Blind-listening Group Test winner, the Michell Gyro SE, is hard to tell. It doesn't have the pace of a Well Tempered or the solidity of the Rock 7, but it does have a certain finesse and calm resolution that is very enticing.

Thanks to good dynamics and timing, not to mention excellent separation of detail – it needs to be auditioned.

First there was the Debut, then came the Genie, then inflation kicked in and the decks hit or even broke the £200 barrier. So Pro-Ject built a new entry-level turntable called Essential for those who want to find out what the vinyl thing is all about.

Pro-Ject has managed to make the Essential affordable by using more cost-effective materials for major parts like the plinth and platter and using a Unipivot version of its 8.6 tonearm.

You can also choose from three colour options including black (£155) or red or white (both £170 each), so on paper at least it looks like great value.

The essentials

The Essential is naturally not an elaborate turntable, but it's European-built, fully set up and is virtually plug and play; all you need is a phono stage.

The plinth is a slab of particle board (supported on three compliant feet) and this houses the three key elements of a record player.

The motor is a synchronous type with two pulleys for 33.3 and 45rpm, while the main bearing, on which the platter spins, is chromed-steel with a ball-bearing thrust pad and sintered bronze housing.

The unipivot arm is an unusual choice at this price point. Most cost several times the price of this package, but they are intrinsically simple devices and presumably inexpensive to build in bulk. It has a one-piece headshell and armtube, and an eccentrically mounted counterweight, which eases the cartridge's job with warped records.

The cartridge fitted is Ortofon's entry-level OM3E moving magnet.

Can it be done?

While you'd be hard pressed to find a sintered bronze bearing on other turntables in this price bracket, it is the smallest example of the type we've seen, but size isn't everything.

The platter is, by necessity, vinyl wrapped, which leaves a joint in its periphery, but this is an aesthetic, not practical issue. The tonearm is not a true unipivot: it only pivots in two planes, but it's neatly put together and has a captive signal lead unlike most Pro-Jects.

On/off switching is on the side, next to the motor and dust is kept at bay with the supplied lid. We also like the simple, but effective downforce gauge supplied in the box.

The only competition at this price comes from plastic turntables with extremely flimsy-looking arms, so one has to wonder if even Pro-Ject can build a useful player at this price.

Bass control

The Essential delivers a reasonably coherent and, with simpler records, surprisingly robust rendition of the signal embedded in the groove. All the fundamentals are in place and while transparency isn't impressive, channel separation is on par for the money.

Compression levels are a little high, however, and image scale (as well as high-frequency extension) is rather obviously curtailed. On the plus side, image width is quite acceptable and the bass, while not exactly weighty, is not without its appeal. It manages to control the bass as well, even when placed on a standard equipment rack where speaker feedback will be getting through to it to some extent.

Female voice seems to work well too, better than some male ones for no obvious reason, the latter often lacking a degree of clarity and precision.

The limits

It would seem that there is a limit even to what Pro-Ject can achieve when costs are cut to the bone, we wondered whether the cartridge is a limiting factor, but trying it on another turntable revealed that (while its treble is restricted) it's more than adequate.

We suggest you buy a Genie Mk 3, it looks better and delivers the sort of sound that will embarrass many digital sources. The Essential is a very affordable way to get into vinyl, but there are better alternatives from the Czech expert.

There are some radical turntable designs in the glorious world of analogue audio, but very few comparable to a Well Tempered product. The Simplex was first developed in the early eighties and this new entry-level turntable is still the least expensive in the Well Tempered range.

The design, unlike all other turntables, doesn't have mechanical arm bearings; instead the arm pivots on a silicone-damped golf ball that hangs from a nylon filament thread.

Zero tolerance

The design was dreamt up by company founder William Firebaugh and was the result of research done by test and measurement company B&K is the late seventies. It concluded that tonearms need to be damped in order to avoid resonance.

A point also picked up by the team at Cranfield university who came up with the front-end damping trough of the Townshend Rock turntable. Firebaugh decided to focus on the arm bearings and eventually came up with a means of eliminating traditional ball races and gimbals altogether, by suspending the arm and using a paddle in silicone fluid to control it.

Since then he has simplified the design to the point where a golf ball acts as the anchor point for the armtube and provides a surface which the silicone fluid in a pot beneath can control, or damp by absorbing resonance induced by the cartridge.

The three elements on the arm: rest, arm support and silicone bath, can be raised and lowered to change VTA and all are independent, so you can experiment with different degrees of damping by changing the bath height relative to the golf ball.

It looks like the ball is floating in the silicone, but it would sink if it were not supported by the nylon threads fixed to the post above, a single twist in this thread is all that exists in the way of anti-skating measures. You can easily see by now, why this design is called the Simplex.

The turntable itself is pretty straightforward as well, but incorporates some unusual features. It's a solid MDF plinth with a painted finish that sits on three squash balls and supports a servo-controlled motor in an anti-vibration mount, and speed change is via two small pulleys.

Drive is achieved with a polyester thread; a very fine filament that has a knot in it – we are told that it's easy to make a new one if this one breaks.

The platter is made from black acrylic and sits on a Teflon bearing that Well Temepered describes as 'zero tolerance'– it consists of a stainless spindle in a triangular shaft, aligned so that the motor pulls the spindle against two flat edges.

The back panel of the plinth has the on/off switch alongside a fine-speed adjusting screw – WT supplies a full-size plastic strobe disc with which to set this up and it doubles as a dust cover for the platter. The platter comes with a foam mat, the use of which is optional and we found that static attraction means it's inclined to come off when you remove the record as is so often the case with felt mats.

There are further tonearm features that warrant a mention. It's a nine-inch aluminium arm that's damped with a specific grade of sand and more controversially the headshell does not move, nor allow movement of the cartridge mounting, so lateral tracking alignment is fixed. This makes for easy set-up, but does have us wondering how precise alignment can be achieved given the variation in stylus-tip-to-mounting-hole distance that you get with different cartridges.

It's worth noting that there is not an arm cable sprouting from the deck, just a pair of RCA phono sockets à la Pro-Ject.

Numbers game

The Simplex is professionally, rather than elaborately built. By comparison with the Michell Gyro SE, it's rather on the plain side – there's a distinct absence of high-quality finishes and shiny brass weights.

The Simplex is sensibly put together, however, and looks like it will last, but we get the impression that you are paying for the design expertise and the resulting sound quality rather than pure engineering.

There is also the fact that you get a unique tonearm, which is difficult to put a value on because it's not something you can buy on its own and fit to another turntable (for fairly obvious reasons), yet in engineering terms its extremely simple.

What makes it expensive is the relatively small production runs required – the Rega arms which you find on turntables like the Michell have been around for 30 years, so unit costs are very low. This turntable has closer parallels with the Townshend Rock 7, it's a technologically advanced product that's made in small numbers for the more adventurous audiophile.

The turntable is easy to set up if you are careful with your silicone fluid (and if you aren't it can be cleaned up with lighter fluid) and straightforward to use. There is a finger lift supplied, but it's sonically preferable to select tracks by holding the armtube at the bearing end, which isn't as nerve-racking as you might imagine.

Well Tempered supplies an electronic downforce gauge in the box and the arm comes with two counterweights that can be used singly or together.

Thrill power

Pear Audio distributes both Well Tempered and Dynavector, so it naturally offered us a Dyna cartridge to use on the Simplex. We opted for the DV-20X2L, which sounds absolutely thrilling.

Initially it comes across as being revealing and assured, if not weighty, but the quality of pace and dynamics means that it's easy to appreciate all the excitement and tension in the music. Drums have a real kick to them and harmonics are particularly well preserved, which gives background sounds a degree of palpability that's unusual.

Low-level detail is also generally well-preserved, which fills out the musical picture and gives the key elements of a piece excellent depth of tone and solidity of image. This solidity comes down to the calmness of presentation, combined with very impressive bass texture and timing, so bass guitars have plenty of nuance and pianos can produce a solidity of reverb that other turntables fail to resolve.

Our calm and objective assessment of this turntable was going well until Tom Waits' bongo-fuelled Trouble's Braids fell under the stylus. It was then that it became difficult to sit still. A situation further exacerbated by some classic ZZ Top.

This explains why a Well Tempered-fronted system we encountered at CES earlier this year had such an engaging sound – it too was spinning the Texan trio. The squash ball feet do a reasonable job of keeping resonance away from the cartridge, but moving the Simplex from a solid support to a Townshend Seismic Stand does tidy things up significantly. It reduces hash in the sound and allows a clearer perspective on the recording.

Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy developed even greater power and really started to chug. Removing the foam mat makes the turntable more lively and forward in the midrange; cymbals becoming more obvious as a result, but overall we preferred the slightly more relaxed sound with it on.

We're hooked

This cleverly conceived turntable does what few others can. It draws you into the music and holds you in its grip. So whether the tunes are upbeat and lively, or dark and mysterious, you feel like it's there in the room and that you're missing out if you don't pay attention.

It doesn't have the bass grip of a Rock but it will give pretty well any other sub two-grand turntable a serious run for its money in the all important musicality stakes.

Some will be concerned about he inability to adjust tracking angle, but there's nothing in the sound to suggest that the resulting distortion that Firebaugh describes undermines the listening experience.

It's far easier to hear why hard bitten Linn LP12 enthusiasts have gone over to its bigger brother: the Amadeus, as there's something pretty damn addictive about the Well Tempered sound.

Just when you thought that you could relax with your record collection along comes another contender with a substantial range of serious-looking turntables.

What's surprising, however, is that despite having UK representation for some time, it's only in the last few months that we have discovered Acoustic Signature, of which the Manfred Mk II is one of the German company's more affordable offerings.

It comes with an outboard power supply and a free-standing motor and the diamond polished platter sets it apart from an increasingly large crowd of competitors at this level, as does switchable speed control.

It can be supplied with any Rega tonearm, or a base to the arm of your choice.

The essentials

This is a superbly put together turntable; everything about it oozes quality, from the real wood veneer finish to the beautifully polished platter. There are not many examples of solid aluminium platters in the sub-£2,000 arena anymore. Perhaps because it's an expensive material to finish well and requires some means of damping to stop ringing.

The Acoustic Signature has a large damping pad on the underside of the platter for this very purpose. The platter itself is 34mm thick and weighs six kilos.

Acoustic Signature has used sintered bronze inserts that have been infused with lubricant in the bearing housing, so that you don't need to add oil which is a boon if you have to repack the deck at any time.

The thrust pad that supports the spindle is made of Tidorfolon, a material that Acoustic Signature developed specifically for the purpose. An alloy of vanadium, ferrite, Teflon and titanium, Tidorfolon is a relatively soft material which mates with a hard tungsten carbide ball at the tip of the bearing shaft or axle.

The plinth is 38mm thick and made of veneered MDF. It sits on three large aluminium feet, which are adjustable for height using a metal button in the centre. The Manfred turntables shown on the Acoustic Signature website appear to have spikes in the feet which are no longer supplied, but are available on request.

We particularly like the way that the cleanly machined motor housing fits into a circular cut-out in the corner of the plinth. It looks as if it's integrated and contrasts rather well with the wood veneer.

The motor has a large drilled-out pulley that runs at a slower speed than usual. When it's started up, it appears to run anti-clockwise while it brings the platter up to speed via a square section rubber drive belt.

The standard arm mount for this turntable is an aluminium one for Rega tonearms, like the RB251 fitted here, but the company can supply alternative plates to suit any nine-inch arm.

Power is supplied by a separate S Alpha motor controller; this converts AC mains to DC current and has a precision oscillator to deliver a 12-volt AC sine wave to the motor. This supply is said to be impervious to fluctuations in the mains and to isolate the motor from any noise.

The S Alpha also provides switchable speed change, but does not transform the mains onboard; instead there is a separate inline transformer with an IEC inlet. This means you have three elements connected together to produce a motor that spins at the desired speed. As it turns out, it spins very slightly faster than 33.3rpm (according to our strobe disc) probably to offset stylus drag.

Long-time running

In terms of build and finish, the Manfred is in the premier league of turntables at its price point. Separate power supplies are not common at this level and, as already mentioned, metal platters are pretty rare, too.

Competitors such as Michell have fully suspended models for rather less, however, and the Manfred's apparent lack of methods to keep resonance at bay will be a concern for anyone with a wooden floor.

There is nothing in the way of tonearm damping, either (Townshend and Well Tempered both have features on turntables at this price which seek to quell resonance in the tonearm so that the cartridge can do a better job). The only resonances that the design addresses are those in the platter, where a damping pad below and felt mat above attempt to minimise any problems.

The bearing is clearly interesting as Michell has developed a self-lubricating inverted bearing, but few individual companies have created a material like Tidorfolon specifically for a turntable. Thanks to this proprietary technology, the bearing design is said to reach optimum performance within 15 minutes and to operate flawlessly for at least ten years, the period for which it is guaranteed.

Another nice touch is that the inner part of the arm plate can be raised and thus used to adjusted VTA (vertical tracking angle) with Rega arms that otherwise require spacers for this purpose.

Crank it up

The Manfred, combined with an RB251 arm and a Dynavector DV-20X2L moving coil, produces a clean and taut sound that digs deep into the mix for the fine details and responds well to better recordings. It might look a bit similar to an LP12, but it has a rather more precise and grounded sound.

The RB251 also seems like a rather basic arm for such a well, put-together turntable and its relatively low mass counterweight is not perfect for cartridges like the Dynavector. Nonetheless, the results are pretty entertaining and revealing, thanks to its ability to resolve subtleties in the context of decent timing.

It's not as on-the-ball as some other turntables at this level, but it's no slouch either. When it comes to playing different types of music, it has the ability to distinguish between the instruments lower down in the mix, as well as those that take centre stage. Voices are clean and open, too, with good image solidity.

But even if this clear-cut presentation is a little short on romance by vinyl standards, the Manfred Mk II still has an honest, almost clinical sound that detail enthusiasts will appreciate.

What most appeals is the stability of the sound; it might not be as thrilling as some other designs, but its imaging and pacing are extremely consistent, benefitting albums like Keith Jarrett's Köln Concert with its repetitive motifs on solo piano.

Keeps you hooked

The Manfred Mk II has a lot going for it in terms of both detail and resolution. Its only shortcoming is a lack of spark and it doesn't always resolve the terra firma of recordings enough to convince you that they are happening right there in the room.

It's likely that a better tonearm would help in this respect, but we have not found the RB251 wanting in the past; it may lack refinement, but is not short on charm.

All-in-all, the Manfred looks great, but doesn't capture the imagination quite as well as the best in class.

although a relative newcomer to the UK, Scheu Analog has been in business since the late 1980s. This makes it one of a number of turntable manufacturers who started up their business just as the LP was allegedly in its death throes.

Perhaps, for that reason, the company's range is not vast, (there are only four turntables and three arms available), but distinctly exotic-looking in design. The Cello (including a Jelco SA-250 arm) is a rectangular slab of acrylic with three feet, an arm mount and a bearing.

The most obvious difference from other designs is that the motor is housed, very ingeniously, in the front left foot. It's a small DC motor with electronic speed control and a small toggle switch that selects the speed.

Instead of a drive belt there's a drive string. In fact, a thin thread can be a highly satisfactory trick and Scheu simply provides a small bobbin of fine nylon thread, just over a tenth of a millimetre in diameter! However, as it's up to the happy owner to cut a length of this and tie a knot in the right place, you may end up exhausting your supply of expletives.

Eventually, one gets a good tight loop the right length which gives good drive to the frosted-finish acrylic platter.

Sound quality

Once again, there was some disagreement among our listeners about the Scheu's bass: is it powerful and propulsive or a little shy? A little investigative work suggests the probable cause.

Playing a variety of familiar discs suggested that the bass is rather better in lively, dynamic moments (a rock drum kit being a perfect example) than in sustained tuned notes (church organ, bass tuba and so forth). The latter tends to sound a little underwhelming, although taken in isolation it's not at all bad.

But the transient energy conveyed by the deck goes a long way towards making the sound very attractive. A closely related area of performance, 'pace', was also singled out for praise.

This is a little more subtle than rhythm, involving as it does not just excitement but also, at suitable moments, restraint. That's necessary to keep the sound from being too frantic, something that we've all come across now and then.

Higher frequencies are well served by the Cello, with good detail across the board and very good life and vibrancy. The treble is always very clean, but prepared to scream and shout when the music demands it – no shrinking violet here!

This can be deceptive, though, the treble occasionally seeming restrained in recordings that are only moderately busy in the top octaves. There was a little puzzlement expressed at the Cello's handling of dynamics. Just occasionally, detail seems a little muted, though as mentioned above it is generally good and surface noise seems slightly more prominent than via some of the decks.

Imaging is good, instruments occupying a consistent and stable position in space and there is some decent depth in the image, too.

In so many respects the P7 turntable is a classic Rega, but it actually shares very few components with the famous old Planar models.

It has an AC motor mounted directly behind the bearing, but it's a low-voltage motor powered from an external generator, which also allows electronic speed switching. It has a short belt drive to the sub-platter, but there is actually a pair of round-section belts and the sub-platter is metal.

There's a hard, rigid platter with a felt mat, but instead of the original glass this one is made of ceramic, complete with Michell-style underslung weights around the periphery.

We have mixed feelings about this platter recipe: sure, it's dimensionally stable second to none, but the hardness is not relevant when there's a felt mat in the way.

The chassis is still particle board, with a metal trim, which serves both visual and functional purposes, helping to damp and disperse resonances in the chassis.

The arm on the P7 is the RB700. Here the inheritance from the classic RB300 is even clearer and many of the parts are identical or, at least, identical in measurements. There are various changes, though perhaps most significantly in the method of mounting: this arm mounts via three screws through holes in the stainless steel base plate, rather than the single large-diameter nut of the older models.

The arm tube is given a special coating. There's a third hole in the headshell for cartridges that take a third bolt (including Rega's, of course). In common with the RB300, the counterweight is made of tungsten and is intended to be adjusted for perfect balance, downforce then being applied by a calibrated spring.

Most arms rely on moving the counterweight to set downforce, but a spring has the advantage of slightly increasing downforce as the arm rides up over a warp, making for more secure tracking of warped discs.

Sound quality

One of the occasionally amusing results of blind listening is that products, apparently from diametrically opposed schools of thought, emerge as sounding quite similar and few would have expected a Rega to receive many similar comments to the Pro-Ject Xperience.

That's what happened, though, with one listener even pointing out the similarity directly. It was felt in general that the P7 had the edge in control and resolution and also integrated the bass better with the mid and treble, but its imaging and general presentation were thought quite a lot like those of the Pro-Ject.

In keeping with the traditions of the brand, a good rocking performance is invariably on offer with any disc of decent merit. In fact it's interesting how Rega has managed to keep that aspect intact from its earliest models, perhaps very slightly lessening the raw impact and at the same time adding more insight and better tonal balance.

Effectively, if you always enjoyed the Rega sound, this could be just the deck for you!

Acrylic is not actually the perfect material for turntables, but it's a good one. It is reasonably stable dimensionally, not very resonant, quite tough and, of course, capable of being polished to a very high standard of finish.

In the case of the Pro-Ject Xperience 2 Pack, it is supported on three very slightly compliant feet, adjustable to set the deck level, which are the only suspension in the design.

Across to the left is the motor, a low-voltage AC type which is fed from a simple wall wart supply and which drives the outside of the platter via a square section belt. Speed change is manual, but easy because the motor is fully accessible.

AC motors tend to vibrate a little, so Pro-Ject has mounted this one on a simple elastic suspension.

The arm is familiar from previous Pro-Ject decks we've tested, with a tube of carbon-fibre composite, moulded seamlessly into the headshell and mounted at the rear on a full gimbal bearing assembly.

The main bearing yoke is a large piece of metal and the base fixes securely to the turntable chassis, including a small metal box, underneath on which are mounted a pair of phono sockets and an earthing post – a more practical way, we feel, of connecting to the following preamp than the usual flying lead.

The deck is available pre-fitted with an Ortofon cartridge (also distributed by Henley Designs): ours arrived with a 2M Blue (£155).

Sound quality

The reaction of each member of our listening panel to this deck was quite similar and generally positive. It didn't excite many superlatives, but engendered a good deal of respect for the way it resolves detail, balances tonality and images.

At the same time, there was some concern noted about the bass. Although it has good reach and body, it can sometimes seem a little disconnected from the rest of the sound, creating an unnatural effect where there is clearly bass in evidence but nevertheless the sound seems slightly thin.

In the higher octaves, though, the midrange and treble is very well integrated and tonality is very neutral. There's a delightful open quality to the treble, which keeps the sound alive and makes for a very natural quality to the feeling of space on a good acoustic recording.

Images are good, if not outstanding, with believable left-right spread and separation. Surface noise seems subjectively on the low side compared to other turntables.

There were several comments on this deck's good rhythm and pace. It, perhaps, wasn't the very best, but was certainly one of the better performers in this respect.

We had deliberately chosen the test tracks to present varied challenges in terms of timing and the Pro-Ject rose well to each. This was most marked in the chamber-orchestra track by Walton, which requires not just good rhythmic precision, but also agility and lightness of touch, which our listeners felt was achieved. It also propelled Pink Floyd with vigour.

The Funk Vector 3 is based on a very simple chassis made into a curvy shape and with a DC motor controlled electronically – fine control for each speed is available via a small screwdriver adjustment just behind the speed switch.

The 'Vector' part of the name refers to the Vector drive system, which uses two small idler pulleys in the belt path, in addition to the motor. The idea is to balance out the sideways pull from the belt so that the platter is less inclined to 'precess' around the spindle.

A flat belt is used, which in principle should be more stable than a round-section belt, though the one on our review sample showed some tendency to twist.

Mounted on the metal subplatter is the main platter, made of Funk's 'Achromat' material which is a foamed plastic, designed to match the acoustic impedance of an LP and absorb mechanical vibrations efficiently from it and quickly turning them into heat thanks to its irregular structure.

New for this test is the FXR II tonearm, which we have been waiting for since about the mid-1990s, when we first heard Arthur Khoubessarian's exposition of its design principles. Again, it is intended to be less resonant than conventional arms.

Funk's answer to the problem of resonance uses a simple tube, quite thin-walled, braced internally with an X-section beam which contacts the tube along its length. It is mounted in a bearing assembly which is, in fact, that of a Rega arm, though with even higher-precision bearings than the (very good) ones that Rega normally uses.

In use it behaves much like a Rega, though the headshell is a slightly fiddly assembly using a mounting plate to fix the cartridge to a single slot on the end of the arm tube.

Sound quality

Opinion was rather sharply divided over this deck's merits, one listener finding it evenly balanced across various aspects of performance, but ultimately a little bland, one liking it for its good tonality and detail and a third commenting several times on 'lifeless' and uninvolving sound.

This degree of variation between listeners is not unusual: different people are bugged by different aspects of performance and that's clearly the case here. What makes it interesting is finding out just what appealed to, or appalled, each listener.

The listener who was most impressed, valued analytical virtues in this turntable and we also felt from our sighted listening that it is at its best recovering the detail from a disc. Where it's not quite so assured is in presenting lifelike images of the music as it happens.

One listener suggested that there might be a little pitch inconsistency in the sound and we would also concur with that. Perhaps, as a result of that the bass is not quite as assured and solid as some of the other decks can manage.

Imaging is fair, with good lateral separation but rather limited depth. Surface noise is particularly low, something we'd attribute, not least, to the arm's lack of resonance.

There are things to admire here, but overall this deck didn't entirely convince us.

The Edwards Audio TT1 starts at a very reasonable £325 without a cartridge, but is also available with an Edwards Zephyr £60 cartridge for £375 (a £10 saving when purchased with the deck as a complete record-playing package).

This cartridge is similar to the popular Goldring Elektra, supplied with this review sample on the highly respected Rega RB250 [OEM] tonearm.

Clearly this turntable is targeted at those who want to be able to enjoy their vinyl without having to remortgage their homes or sell any of their internal organs to fund the investment.

Rega revisited

The TT1 differs from the timeless Rega P2, upon which it is based, in that it features a clear, naked acrylic platter. No mat is fitted nor recommended – "unless you really want to mess up the performance," says the designer. He continues, "We tried all sorts of mats and they all made the player sound worse.

"The core design of the P2 has been fine-tuned over twenty-five years or more and it is hard to improve it now without measures that push the retail price through the roof.

"Conversely, it is easy to tip the balance and ruin its performance with ill-considered modifications. We thought about modifying the bearing to use ruby, which we know makes a worthwhile improvement, but that costs far too much at this price level. Maybe we will offer it as an after-market upgrade someday.

"For now we simply use an enhanced grade of oil, which produces a clearly audible improvement in the sound. We will be releasing a power supply upgrade for the TT1, which will also benefit standard Rega turntables and those using the same motor."

Many modifiers spend vast sums of money tweaking their RB tonearms. But, on an entry-level turntable this makes as much sense as bolting a Formula 1-specification engine into a Toyota Yaris.

Having the arm rewired and a discrete earth connection made (about £65 from Audio Origami), and maybe replacing the counterweight and stub (around £30 from Moth) might be sensible limits here. Silver wiring, for example, seems way over the top in this instance, unless you have money to burn and an enormous passion for tweakery.

Revealing performer

The TT1 is a delightfully simple design, which virtually guarantees its build integrity: there is so little to go awry.

The platform on which it is based, the Rega P2, or Planar 2 as it was known in its early years, was always the de facto and totally consistent sound-quality benchmark by which other turntables were judged. As far as most people were concerned the question about any other turntable – at any price level – always was, and still is, "Does it outperform the Planar 2?"

A great many turntables, even today, still fail to come near reaching its reassuringly high standards. It might not be the most explicitly revealing performer on the planet, but it has a wonderful overall balance of attributes that make it exceptionally easy to enjoy and appreciate.

In short, it communicates music's fundamentals and more with great conviction and ease. The Edwards Audio modifications help it climb a rung or two further up the performance ladder.

Tight bass

The TT1 starts off well by tracking securely and not making a meal of surface noise. It is very quiet even with old and frequently played albums. It further surprises by producing a stable, solid soundstage with a respectable representation of front-to-back depth on suitably recorded albums.

It exhibits a very acceptable, close-to-neutral tonal balance that is fully exploited by the bass, drums, guitars and vocals on Rockin' Jimmy's album Rockin Jimmy and the Brothers of the Night. First off, the bass plays clear tunes with distinct and precisely pitched notes, all perfectly in tune with the lead and rhythm guitars and not muddied or obscured by the kick drum or any euphonic warmth.

Cymbals cut distinctly through the mix and they, the rest of Chuck DeWalt's kit and Gary Cundiff's positively driven bass, urge every track along with real determination. Piano has solid intonation and there is no wateriness or wavering about its presentation.

The 180g pressing of Gwynneth Herbert's All the Ghosts, further shows how the bass is tight, tuneful, fast and weighty. Her voice has all the quirky character and expressiveness we heard when we saw her perform live.

The TT1 conveys the emotion and humour of her performance with alacrity and never reduces her – or any vocalist – to sounding like a Karaoke performer. Equally, it renders the relationship between the singer's phrasing and the band's playing with true lucidity and precision.

The TT1 sounds characteristically Rega Planar-like, but there is a shade more bite and 'edge' – in a positive sense – that gives music an enhanced vigour and rhythmic urgency.

Tough proposition

Overall, the TT1 has all the positive qualities of the Rega P2 and the Goldring Elektra is a highly complementary choice of cartridge. The combination succeeds in conveying all the attributes necessary to make music engaging: it has dynamism and is secure in its portrayal of pitch information.

It is well-balanced tonally and has a pleasing openness about its sound: it lets you listen beyond the first layer of a mix and enjoy, say, the backing vocalists' contributions to a song.

At its price, it is a tough proposition to beat.