Review on 🎶 Pro-Ject Essential Turntable: Acryl-E Acrylic Platter Upgrade for Enhanced Performance by Giovanni Bedjohn

I was very excited about this simple little update for my Pro-Ject Essential II player. When it arrived I wanted to do a before and after comparison, so I put on Boston's first album and listened to "More Than a Feeling" on an MDF cymbal. Good test track, I thought. lots of dynamics; many details; Lots of everything. However, when I started to mount the acrylic plate, the spindle was too tight in the hub and it wouldn't spin without a little jerk and then unevenly. So I took it out and applied some WD-40 with a soft cloth. It helped a lot, but it still pulled. I could hear hesitation in the finer details of the music. So I pulled it back out, wiped off the WD-40, opened the hose box and got out the slide lube and valve oil. I applied a thin coat of guide grease to the spindle and squirted a very small amount of valve oil over it. Bingo! It did. I replaced the acrylic plate in the hub and spun it a little with my finger and it spun nice and fast and smooth. I installed the strap and put the Boston back on and it sounded great. I don't know what "smooth" sound means, but it really seemed to me that there was more detail than before. I also really like how it looks. The only downside is that the top spindle is a bit tight, making it difficult to remove the record. Other than that, it's great.