Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

For a deck with a host of style and engineering features, it’s often the little things that count the most, in this case the high quality flat-section belt and AC drive system seen earlier in the model X1 [HFN Aug ’19]. Like that turntable, the XA B is gifted with exceptional speed stability [see Graph 1]. Absolute speed is an imperceptible –0.1% slow while peak-weighted wow is reduced to a very pitch-stable 0.02% – this is firmly in direct-drive territory! Flutter is a little higher with shoulders between ±10-20Hz while the peaks at ±82Hz are also visible on the unweighted rumble spectrum [not shown here]. Nevertheless, 0.06% is still a fine figure for complete turntable solution at this price. Rumble from the stainless steel/brass bearing is slightly below average at –65.5dB (DIN-B wtd, re. 5cm/sec) but the XA B’s dynamically-balanced alloy platter, with TPE damping, produces a lower through-groove rumble of –69.4dB. This is the key figure, of course, and there’s no significant difference with or without the 190g ‘Record Puck E’ weight.

Pro-Ject’s partnering 10in (9in effective length) alloy tonearm has a medium/low10g effective mass, suiting a wide range of pick-ups, including the supplied Pick it PRO Balanced MM [see boxout] with its 7.2g bodyweight and 12-14cu compliance. The four-point Cardan bearing was snugly adjusted in our sample – free of play and with a low ~20mg friction, while the counterweight calibration errs on the side of caution by under-reading by a slight 5%. The alloy armtube appears to be only lightly damped so while the main beam mode is deferred to a high 140Hz there are a series of higher frequency resonances at 510Hz, 625Hz, 870Hz and 1kHz that may contribute to a ‘lively’ sounding midrange [see CSD waterfall, Graph 2]. PM