Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

The Debut was born out of an idea formed in the summer of 1998 by long-time UK distributor of Pro-Ject Audio Systems, Laurence Armstrong, and company founder Heinz Lichtenegger. The two were together in Austria discussing ideas to develop the 'analogue market' and soon returned to Lichtenegger's original thinking behind the formative Pro-Ject 1 turntable launched in 1991. The brief was simple: a turntable that was affordable enough to be considered an 'add-on sale' in stores, but that could wow would-be purchasers with a convincing audiophile performance as soon as it was plugged in. Within a day of their new concept taking shape, a sample was produced in the company's Czech factory by Jiri Kroutil, Pro-Ject's original product manager, and within a matter of months the Debut was flying off shelves and an audio icon was born...

In the early 2000s, the Debut II arrived with a variety of colour finishes and new features including a built-in speed controller and phono stage. This was swiftly followed by the Debut III, also among the first hi-fi turntables to include a USB output. The Debut's status was consolidated at its highest ever price point in 2012 with the Debut Carbon and its carbon fibre tonearm [HFN May '12]. In 2020, over 20 years since the original concept, the latest iteration – the Debut Carbon EVO [HFN Dec '20], was launched to the same generally high praise, suggesting, if we hadn't realised this before, that Armstrong and Lichtenegger really were on to something all that time ago! PM