Project Xpression Carbon UKX Turntable (Bordeaux) with Ortofon 2M-Silver Cartridge

Pro-ject have an excellent reputation, built on many years of product development. They kept the faith in vinyl through the wilderness years immediately after the introduction of CDs and are now riding the wave of vinyl resurgence. The problem with this particular model (2016) is the motor noise. You can hear the motor humming away when you first switch on the deck. Add the platter and the dust cover and the hum becomes apparent during quiet passages of music. This is not what we expect from a turntable costing nearly £600. There's clearly something amiss and it makes a mockery of the claimed signal:noise ratio in the manual. I have returned two of these to a high street hi-fi chain (not this seller on Amazon), both with the same fault. The vibration is transmitted through the platter to the vinyl, thence to the cartridge, and thence to your speakers. Google "Pro-ject motor hum" to read more (and it wasn't solved when they moved from AC to DC power supply). It's a mechanical hum, not an electrical one due to poor earthing; the noise stops as soon as you turn off the motor, and starts again when you switch it on. I had the DC model and it still hummed like a distant hive of bees. Shame, because the tone arm and cartridge are excellent, and the turntable with acrylic platter looks awesome. Pro-ject need to get on top of their quality control and maybe re-think that motor mount.