Pro-Ject Audio Systems was founded in 1991 in Austria by Heinz Lichtenegger, at a moment when the rest of the industry was convinced that vinyl records and turntables were on their way out, swept aside by the rise of the Compact Disc. Lichtenegger believed otherwise. After discovering a simple belt-drive turntable, the Tesla NC-500, produced at a Czech Republic factory following the fall of the Iron Curtain, he bought a batch, sold them through his shop in Vienna, and found an eager audience — proof that the appetite for analogue sound hadn't gone anywhere.

Encouraged by that early response, Lichtenegger restarted production at the original Czech factory, refining the design with improved materials and engineering to create the Pro-Ject 1 — the foundation of everything that followed. Guided by a clear mission to deliver the finest analogue experience at genuinely affordable prices, Pro-Ject grew steadily through the 1990s and expanded into a full range of hi-fi electronics from 2000 onward, including amplifiers, DACs, phono stages, and speakers, all still designed in Austria and manufactured across Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.