Usually reserved for specialist stores and vinyl enthusiasts with large record libraries, vinyl flatteners could be democratized thanks to Pro-Ject’s Flatten (flattener in German).
Announced a month ago but still not present on the official website, the Flatten is launched at a price of 799 €, four times less expensive than the Furutech DF-2 (3 369 €). Relatively compact, its aluminum chassis weighs a total of 4 kg and protects vinyls by gently heating them to around 60°C with a precision of 2°C, before exerting pressure to make the disc flat, without damaging its grooves.
The protective characteristics and duration of the process are not yet known, but it is clear from the Heating-Cooling switch that the Flatten uses the same solutions as its functional competitors, namely a warm-up to heat the record before flattening it, followed by a long cooling phase to avoid distorting the grooves by releasing the record. Designed for all diameters of vinyl, especially 33 rpm and 45 rpm, we don’t know if this device imposes a minimum weight for vinyl records, as the other flatteners on the market.
We will let you know more as soon as possible!
05/05/2025
