X1 B – Ready for the next step
Turntables look back on a long history. As technology continues to progress, many things have changed, not only from the technical possibilities but also from the environment. Wireless networks are omni present and countless electronic devices make your home “smarter”. This means there are now a lot of additional electromagnetic fields, which could interfere with your turntable’s signal. This was simply not the case 30 years ago. To ensure the best connection to your phono preamplifier, Pro-Ject designed their “True Balanced Connection“ product range.
Why True Balanced?
Balanced audio connections are usually known from the professional sector like recording studios or live concerts. It is very important to have a stable and interference free connection as these signals, especially microphone signals, will be highly amplified. The same applies to the connection from your turntable to the phono preamplifier. The big advantage of a balanced connection is its ability to remove picked up noise and interferences.
Balanced connections use three wires for one channel: ground, a hot and a cold wire. The cold wire carries the inverted (reversed in polarity) hot signal. At the receiving end, the cold signal is flipped and added together. The trick happens here: If the cable picks up any noise, the noise is added to both signals. So, a positive interference is a positive tick on the hot and on the cold signal. If you now flip one of them, the interference is also inverted, so you get the same interference once in a positive and once in a negative direction. If you now add these two signals, the noise will cancel out.
The X1 B is Pro-Ject’s first turntable with a fully balanced mini XLR output, which offers you a symmetrical connection to the new Phono Box S3 B or Phono Box DS3 B.
Important: To use the True balanced connection to your phono preamp, your X1 B needs to be upgraded with an MC cartridge.
High-end tonearm and cartridge
The X1 B uses an 8.6″ carbon/aluminum tonearm. The carbon layer gives the tonearm a high degree of rigidity, while the inner aluminum tube takes over the damping of the tonearm. The ultra-low friction 4-pin point tonearm bearing guarantees precise, stable, and accurate tracking. The one-piece design avoids vibrations caused by detachable headshells.
The higher mass makes the tonearm an excellent fit for low and moderate compliance MC cartridges. The TPE damped counterweight reduces arm-cartridge resonances by as much as 50%.
The X1 B is packaged to suit anyone who cares about how their vinyl sounds. Therefore, it comes with a high-quality pre-adjusted Sumiko Rainier MM cartridge.
The full aluminum tonearm base offers you real audiophile features. It allows you to adjust both the azimuth and the vertical tracking angle (VTA).
The tonearm height can be continuously adjusted by loosening the two grub screws. These settings give you the option of adapting the tonearm to height changes, allowing the use of different turntable mats or other cartridges to always achieve the best sound quality.
Setting and experimenting with the VTA and Azimuth is crucial in extracting every last bit of performance out of your cartridges.
