Pro-Ject Colourful HiFi System Review

The Austrian system

by Ed Selley
Hi-Fi Review

5

Best Buy
Pro-Ject Colourful HiFi System Review
MSRP: £1,599.00
9
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

Pro-Ject Colourful HiFi System Review

The Colourful HiFi System is another great example of affordable Hi-Fi with all the jumping off and upgrade potential it entails. Separates are back baby.

Pros

  • Confident, accurate but lively sound
  • Superbly made
  • Incredibly flexible upgrade potential

Cons

  • Can justify better speakers out of the box
  • Bulky external PSU on the amp
  • Not hugely powerful

Introduction - What Is the Colourful HiFi System?

The Pro-Ject Colourful Hi-Fi system is an optional method of buying a complete ‘just add a record’ style system that has been created by Pro-Ject that coincides with the launch of the Maia S3 integrated amplifier. This is available to buy on its own (as are the other constituent parts of the system) but the idea here is that you can buy them together and make a saving and get all the cables you need to get up and running.

Now, stop me if you have heard this one before. The premise here is very (very) similar to that of the Rega System One which is Rega taking all the concepts and ideals that it considers important in the creation of their audio equipment and making it available as a single plug and play package. There are - as we will cover - some differences in the ethos of Rega and Pro-Ject that makes the end result intriguingly different. On a wider level though, the question is the same as it was with the Rega. In a world where one box and just-add-speaker options are exceptionally talented, the idea of a complete, vinyl fronted system can feel somewhat anarchic. The conclusion for the System One is that the Rega styles this out sufficiently convincingly to be worthy of consideration. Does the tweaked recipe offered by Pro-Ject achieve the same effect, particularly when that higher price is taken into account? Let’s find out.

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Specification and Design

Pro-Ject Colourful Hi-Fi system

First, a point of admin more than anything else. This system is fronted by a Debut Carbon Evo. I will be devoting pretty much no time to it in the spec section of this review because it has its own review and a complete follow up piece detailing all the things you can do to one to make it better (short summary, you can do loads and the gains in performance are huge). As such, all I’m going to say about it in what is its third appearance here is that it looks marvellous in yellow. Given the choice between a wood effect wrap and something bolder like this, I’ll choose the colour finish every time.

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This gives rather more room to talk about the Maia S3 which is both new and rather interesting. As the name suggests, this is the third iteration of the Maia; Pro-Ject’s take on a compact but fully featured integrated amplifier. It has grown a little larger over its lifetime but the latest version is still considerably smaller than a Rega Io. What is notable about this is that the Maia S3 can do rather more.

Around the back of the Pro-Ject, you’ll find three RCA line inputs and a moving magnet phono stage. No less usefully, you’ll also find an RCA preout; something that means that the range of Pro-Ject power amplifiers (and indeed everyone else’s) is open to you and that, perhaps more relevantly, the Maia S3 is an order of magnitude easier to use with a subwoofer for a 2.1 setup. Around the front you will find a 6.35mm headphone socket.

Pro-Ject Colourful Hi-Fi system

Pro-Ject isn’t done there either. The Maia has a digital board that comprises two optical inputs, a coaxial connection and on board Bluetooth. The physical inputs are 24/192 capable while the Bluetooth fitment is aptX Adaptive (with AAC available for iOS users). The internal DAC is a Cirrus Logic CS4344; a chipset that isn’t that commonly encountered in 2022. The connections put the Maia S3 in a slightly different place to the Rega Io (or indeed a number of other affordable integrated amps) and means that the system balance here is different. If you have a phone or a television, the Maia S3 is set up to communicate with them directly.

Given that the Maia S3 is rather small, you might reasonably ask what room there is for amplification in this. The answer is that there is a little less off it here than in other amps at this sort of price. The Maia S3 produces an extremely specific 23 watts into 8 ohms that rises to 40 watts into 4 (albeit at 1% THD). Now, there’s no getting around the fact that this is not a vast amount of power. For the £539 that the Maia S3 costs on its own, you can buy amps with rather more grunt. It’s worth noting though that the Maia S3 was perfectly up to the job of powering the Acoustic Energy AE520 for the bulk of its testing and at no stage have I found it wanting for gain.

Something that goes hand in hand with this that is less appealing though is that the Maia S3 uses an external brick type PSU. In terms of how the amp works I don’t feel there is any performance issue to doing so but it does mean that, even though the chassis of the Maia S3 is compact, more space will have to be found for the PSU and more effort made to keeping things tidy than would be the case with a straight IEC or fig8 mains lead in.

Pro-Ject Colourful Hi-Fi system

The speaker that Pro-Ject has decided to partner up with the Debut Carbon Evo and Maia S3 is not too surprising because they only make one model. The Speaker Box 5 S2 is an evolution of the long running Speaker Box 5 and it is a classic example of logical engineering, carefully implemented. It features a 25mm silk dome tweeter and a 150mm fibreglass mid bass driver, augmented by a rear bass port and connected together by relatively simple crossover that supports single wiring. Frequency response is quoted at 55Hz-20kHz (albeit with no roll off).

Now, something I feel worth mentioning about the older Speaker Box 5 on which this speaker is based is that, on the occasions I’ve tested it (and there have been a few), it has pleased me every time. It’s a simple recipe that delivers impressive bang for your buck. Nevertheless, it changes the dynamic of the Pro-Ject system considerably over the Rega one. In the Rega System One, the Kyte speaker is comfortably the most expensive and technically radical part of the system. Here, the opposite is the case and it does feel a little like the Speaker Box 5 S2 wouldn’t be the natural choice if Pro-Ject made more speakers.

It's hard to argue that the trio looks fantastic though. The idea is that you can have the Speaker Box 5 S2 in any of the colours that the Carbon Evo is available in (which means that red, white, green and blue are also options) and it gives the system a visual identity that I love. The black of the Maia S3 (silver is also available but I strongly recommend black here) essentially matches the secondary colour of the turntable and speakers. It gives a visual identity and homogeneity that affordable Hi-Fi can lack.

I also can’t fault the build. The Carbon Evo is superbly made, isolated from the outside world in a way that most affordable turntables simply aren’t and it’s a breeze to setup. The Maia is sturdy and attractive and while eight inputs is a fair number to cycle through (there’s no direct selection) you can do so in either direction which helps. There’s a small remote too which works well although why Pro-Ject has selected left and right for volume and up and down for input is a complete mystery and something I find mildly infuriating even after using the Maia S3 for nearly a month.

Pro-Ject Colourful Hi-Fi system

The idea is that you can have the Speaker Box 5 in any of the colours that the Carbon Evo is available in (which means that red, white, green and blue are also options) and it gives the system a visual identity that I love

How was the Colourful System tested?

As noted, the Maia arrived first to take part in (and win) an affordable amplifier group test for another publication. It was tested with a pair of Acoustic Energy AE120² and an iFi ZEN One Signature DAC running as a Roon endpoint before the Speaker Box 5 was attached and the Roon Nucleus fitted with an M2Tech HiFace USB to S/PDIF convertor to allow the coax input of the Maia S3 to be used directly. An LG 55B7 OLED TV has also been used via the optical input. The Debut Carbon Evo has been connected to the MM phono input and used as is save for some testing with an Ortofon 2M Blue stylus over the supplied Red one. Material used has been FLAC, AIFF, Tidal, Qobuz, some broadcast and on demand TV and vinyl.

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Performance

Pro-Ject Colourful Hi-Fi system

As we’ve hinted at, the Pro-Ject Colourful HiFi system is effectively a reverse of the Rega System One. That puts the bulk of its budget into the Kyte speaker (a device I love) where the Pro-Ject allocates a rather smaller share of its budget to the Speaker Box 5 S2. The price difference between the Rega Io and Maia S3 is more to do with the extra functionality of the Pro-Ject than an out and out advantage to its amplifier (although, in a side by side test via the RCA inputs with the ZEN Signature, I do fractionally prefer the Maia S3). This leaves the Pro-Ject’s point of advantage as the Debut Carbon Evo. And the Carbon Evo delivers.

As I have noted time and time again, turntables are old scale mechanical engineering. They improve by infuriating amounts as that engineering (and cost of implementing it) improves which is why I wound up buying one that costs a sum of money that I’m actually embarrassed to tell people in public. The Carbon Evo is £200 more than a Rega Planar 1 (and arguably benefits from production efficiencies and economies of scale that the Rega does not) and it makes that count. It might now be only a penny under £500 but this is still comfortably the best sub £500 turntable you can buy. Vinyl on the System One is a joyous experience, vinyl here is a Hi-Fi one.

Listening to Little Barrie and Malcolm Catto’s Quatermas Seven; an unusual modern example of a completely analogue master, the Pro-Ject System is startlingly immediate. Catto’s jazz drumming leaps out of the mix and the whole track fizzles with energy. In this context, the 23 watts from the Maia S3 are more than enough. Even allowing for that small but sturdy volume control being somewhat ‘front loaded’ in terms of gain, it effortlessly fills my listening space with little audible strain.

The Maia really is a device that impresses from the outset and only builds on that as you spend more time with it. It’s a potent, rhythmically assured and usefully spacious sounding amp that does a very neat trick of balancing excitement and energy with enough refinement to ensure that less than perfect mastering isn’t struck off the listening roster. As you would hope, the on board phono stage is not a by the numbers device either - it’s quiet, detailed and well integrated to the overall tonality of the amp itself.

Pro-Ject Colourful Hi-Fi system

And then, there’s that digital board. The presence of a decent Bluetooth fitment on the Maia S3 changes the dynamic of how you can use this system. Listening to A Happy Medium by SHAEFS from Qobuz from my Oppo Find X2 is a genuinely invigorating experience. Yes, using Roon via the S/PDIF converter is better still but the costs involved in that are rather substantial. The Maia S3 has the means of making use of your existing hardware to sound thoroughly engaging. The same is the case with sending TV material to it via optical. I watched a week of TV through the Pro-Ject and I enjoyed all of it.

This is because the Speaker Box 5 S2 is an unreasonably good speaker. There’s a fundamental ‘rightness’ to the way it makes music that has you ignore the limitations to the bass and the fact that, of the three components, it is the speakers that are the easiest to provoke (although it would be a stretch to call them ‘bright’) anything approaching that. The biggest achievement this relatively affordable device does is to ensure that the quality of that front end really makes itself felt.

But… but… I am obligated to point out that the electronics can deliver more. Combining them with something like a Triangle Borea BR03 would lose the gorgeous colour matching between deck and speakers but it would unlock more performance while being well within the capability of the Maia S3 to drive. I maintain this latter point is not the issue some people think it might be though. The performance of the Maia with the large (albeit reasonably sensitive) Acoustic Energy 120 suggests that it’ll handle most sub £1k speakers without issue.

And it’s important to remember that the Pro-Ject system has exactly the same advantages that the Rega System One has. You can buy it and be delighted with the performance out of the box. Then, when you are ready to improve it, you have myriad ways of doing so. The stretch on offer here is enormous and it is fair to say that, with the exception of speakers, Pro-Ject has a more flexible upgrade path than pretty much anyone else. While the balance is different here than with the Rega; there, choosing which component to change is almost a subjective preference, here, it’s clearly the speakers, the flexibility is unchanged.

Pro-Ject Colourful Hi-Fi system

You can buy it and be delighted with the performance out of the box. Then, when you are ready to improve it, you have myriad ways of doing so

Conclusion

Pro-Ject Colourful HiFi System Review

As such, the Pro-Ject might be similar in ethos to the Rega and offer the same ‘jumping off point’ but it is not the same in outcome. What the Pro-Ject System does so well is give you the integration, flexibility and convenience of an all in one but in a manner that is entirely Pro-Ject and tremendously appealing as a result. Yes, it is fractionally under speakered but not so much that it won’t delight would be owners and the scope the electronics have to work with more sophisticated transducers going forward is extremely impressive. This is more great affordable Hi-Fi but done in a way that is brilliantly user friendly. It’s hard to see the result as anything other than a Best Buy.

Best Buy

Scores

Build Quality

.
9

Connectivity

.
9

Ease of Use

.
9

Sound Quality

.
9

Features

.
.
8

Value for Money

.
9

Verdict

.
9
9
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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