My experience with a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon TT

i bought my brother in law the music hall 2.2

he plays it everyday with no issues, I had them side by side and its much better IMHO than the carbon

 

I made the minor upgrade a couple of years ago from a Debut III to the Carbon. What I should have done is a much bigger upgrade. The Carbon is okay but I did have an intermittent issue with a short (?) in one channel causing the volume balance between the two channels to be off.

FWIW, I never upgraded to the acrylic platter because at the time I could find no evidence from the manufacturer that it was actually made to fit the Carbon.

 

Ive actually found a pretty good effective fix to get rid of the hum on one of these...

Make sure you have a large window available with plenty of natural light ...and then throw it out!

 

ha...

 

The cases I've read about were resolved by removing the red shipping screws.

 

They are not actually transport screws in the Carbon. They are necessary.

 

Correct....always thought that might be a clue to reported issues....?

 

This is my dust cover's purpose while records are being played.

 

Yep, because mine are not transport screws either. I removed no screws from mine, was also not instructed to within the manual. And I have no hum.

 

Lol proper

 

i tried taking those screw out, didn't go well... the motor tilted towards the platter and the belt didn't run right...plus a lot of vibration...not recommended...

 

your're doing it right!

 

Cool to know, have not heard anyone state what happens when they are removed. The MH 2.2 and the Project look similar...until one does a side by side. Different tables fo' sure.

 

I have a Pro-ject RM5 5 and bought 2 debut III'S for family members.
First: The two Debut III tables seemed to have no hum to speak of. I tried both in my system before a passed them on.
Second: My RM5 what appears to be the same motor setup. It has the dreaded hum. I've tried countless ways to eliminate this. There is no question it's caused by the motor and not some ground issue or some other crap that people suggest.
I've added a bunch rubber spacers in the suspension that has reduced it, but it's still there.
I've ran the signal in to a spectrum analyzer and made tweaks to lower the hum. A quarter turn to the mounting screws will make a difference. I know, I've measured the results. This is a very time consuming process.
What sucks is, I can't sell it with all this rubber around the motor. But if I take it out, it hums so bad, I'd never sell it either.

 

yep....lots of work to make a new TT sound as it should...

 

Strange, mine worked right out of the box. Plug and play.

 

its a crap shoot...

 

If you have gone through the effort to tune the isolation and dampening using a spectrum analyzer I would consider the turntable to be worth more with the mods in place than without. Having the mods there though will clue knowledgeable people in that that particular Project turntable is a hummer. Even if it's a hummer, having someone take the time to tweak the isolation to minimize the humming is worth money. It's not easy to do. And is tricky and fussy.

 

The hum is drastically reduced, although I can still detect it at times since I know it's there.

 

There was a mod kit brought out by (I beleive) Henley Designs a few years back that was supposed to solve the issue.
Unfortunately it was only for the European market. There was talk of a North American version but I don't think it ever materialized.
It involved some rubber spacers and a new pulley and belt.
They claimed the flat belt also added to the problem. The new pulley allowed for a round belt.
The pulley is a different size for the 50 hz markets that the 60 hz markets

 

This is also my experience. Other than that brief period when I heard a hum, the table has been just fine. I don't know what all the fuss is about. As someone else said, the Debut Carbon is just a hair above entry level. I don't expect perfection at this price, but I do expect "good enough". Good enough is what I have. The table seems to be a great value.

 

its not that, its the over the top ratings the TT was given by the stereo mags...So people expected more than "sounds good for the price"

 

New motor time.

 

I've read of too many people replacing the motor and has no improvement.
But....actually, I might try that.
I've been curious about how difficult it would be to use the DC motor. It would take more than just the motor, but just how hard could it be?