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Blog post: Pro-Ject’s Dark Side of the Moon tribute turntable

In 1973, a friend had just gotten his first car, an old Pontiac - with a cassette player. As we drove, he played a tape of the latest release from a band I barely knew: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. I was fascinated by the mysteriously melodies, but also by the music’s awesome sound quality. For the first time, drums seemed to really sound like drums rather than cardboard boxes, and vocals soared. I never thought that decades later, I would remember that day like it was yesterday.  

Dark Side went on to become one of the best-selling records in rock history - still in the all-time top 5. The single best-selling album of the 1970’s, it has been certified 14 times platinum in the UK alone. Dark Side of the Moon has also had longevity, charting on the US Billboard for an astounding 990 consecutive weeks, or 19-plus years. A part of the album’s charm is the unique, simple, yet genius cover art. A prism is reflecting a stream of light beams, set against a black, outer-space style background. 

Pro-Ject Audio was founded in the early ‘90’s in the Czech Republic by Heinz Lichtenegger. Pro-Ject rose to become one of our industry’s most successful manufacturers of turntables and record care products. They are now manufacturing “The Dark Side of the Moon Turntable”, paying homage to the cover art on Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece - on display in our Timonium, MD store.

Handmade in Europe, this is a good-sounding AND good-looking turntable. The plinth, or base, has a spectacular prism shape, a la the album cover, and is made of sturdy MDF, to absorb resonances and minimize distortion. The heavy aluminum sub platter has a stainless-steel axle that sits in and rotates in a bronze bushing, for smooth and relatively vibration-free rotational stability.  

A silicon belt attached to the AC motor drives the sub platter and platter. The platter is of 10 mm (just under 3/8th inches) thick, non-resonant tempered glass - looks so cool and shows you the ‘table underneath.  

Pro-Ject has become very skilled over the years at tonearm design and construction. They created a new, low-resonance tonearm for the Dark Side ‘table, made of black aluminum and acrylic parts, to match the solid rotational mechanisms. 

The tonearm is factory-fitted with a Pick-it Pro Special Edition phono cartridge, a moving magnet design that complements this new tonearm’s length and mass. That ensures you hear the tight bass notes and full, realistic sounding vocals of your favorite music. Because it’s set up from the factory, you don’t have to worry much about whether you are skilled with cartridge set-up - and the Dark Side prism artwork on the side complements the ‘table aesthetically, too.    

Pro-Ject even did a nice job with the owner’s manual, detailed and full of photos. They include a two-point alignment protractor for fine-tuning cartridge alignment. They also include a power supply, a phono cable, and adaptor for 45 rpm vinyl. 

This is one of the coolest turntables we’ve ever seen, and it sounds good, too! To see and hear this fine product, visit us in Timonium, MD, and to find out more or shop on-line.