Review by Noam Bronstein Pre-audio’s unique and significant turntables from Poland have finally landed on our shores here in North America, thanks to distributor/dealer/manufacturer extraordinaire Charisma Audio. Why is this significant? One glance tells the story: we haven’t seen moderately-priced, linear-tracking turntables on the market, in…well, a long, long time! This review will focus on the BT-1301, which comes in at $1800 US in the lovely wood-veneered MDF shown (yes – including the tonearm!), and $2100 US in the granite base version. I tested the granite model here for a couple of weeks in the springtime, knowing that Charisma needed it back quickly for the AXPONA show. And in that two weeks, I was away for several days at the Montreal show. So my initial time with the ‘table was short, and Bernard kindly agreed to loan the MDF version for several weeks over the summer. Having now spent about five weeks listening to these decks, I feel I can comment on them. To start with, the Pre-audio turntables have absolutely beautiful fit and finish: both the acrylic and brass pieces on the BT-1301 are very finely machined, as are the bases – in either material choice. It’s actually quite visually stunning, borrowing the underhung [...]
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