Does the new Project Debut Carbon DC fix the motor hum problem?

The speed box is a great addition, however for the DC versions it does not work.

 

Speaking of the Speed Box, I wonder if the humming problem is happening on the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Esprit SB since it includes the built-in version?

 

If the motor mounts are the same, the answer is yes. The degree/severity of the problem will likely depend on how "bad" your particular example of the cheapo OTS motor is.

 

Well, the motor buzz has returned. Now, even the tone arm is vibrating. The vibration increases when the platter is on. I give up. I’ll look for another turntable brand and will put the Pro-Ject up for sale. It was good while it lasted.
I’ve owned many turntables in my life, including high end Technics, Thorens, etc. , down to next to entry level Sonys, Pioneers and Philips. Never had problems with such a lousy motor. Pro-Ject should be ashamed to sell such low quality.

 

The only humming problem I got on mine was when the ground wire claw became loose on TT which is easily fixed by tightening the ground knob

 

The new X-line looks to be a different setup with the motor. I am considering the X2. Hopefully they solved this issue.

 

I don't blame you one bit, it is aggravating when you have to tweak something to make it work properly. I must say that I had reoccurring noise before going to the 30 durometer Sorbothane pads, they seem to be the answer. Good luck on your endeavors.

 

I'm back. I have managed to greatly alleviate the motor problem by wrapping it in Noico automotive noise reduction material. The vibration was reduced by about 80-90%. Now the turntable is finally listenable.

However, I'm still going to sell it. My equipment is too revealing and the little remaining noise still bothers me.

For those wanting to try this fix, I got the Noico mats on Amazon. They cost US$ 12.99 for 5 pieces. The listing is named Noico 80 mil 5 sqft Car Sound Deadening Mat.
I used less than half a sheet to wrap the motor and the sub platter.

 

You know, I just have to say, isn't it so unfortunate ANY company could know their turntable has 120 cycle hum the second that stylus hits the record, and for literally YEARS they have NOT fixed the problem. The humming Carbon still has terrible hum to this day.

I think it is beyond terrible. I remember when I bought one to try, and I knew about their unresolvable problem, however how bad could it be, right? I found out that even Pro-Jects top engineering people told me, just send the table back to the vendor and get a refund. I asked would they simply trade my AC version for the newer DC version that was coming out right at that time and they would not, as they knew the DC version actually still had an AC motor and the 120 Hz humming problem simply was not and is not solved to this day. For that reason, I would never, ever buy a Pro-Ject product, just won't do it. How could any company do that to their customers is beyond me!

 

I just took delivery of the Pro-ject X1, they still haven't fixed a thing, motor was buzzing/humming on first start-up and didn't stop, The tonearm rest was swinging loose too. The QC is appalling, it's going straight back!! Starting to think avoiding Pro-ject is the thing to do.

 

Good for you!! I honestly can't believe the people that buy these Pro-Ject products, on the Carbon, the arm is so light and the arm pickup is so small, you can't even pick that arm up, and the turntable pad is like a piece of toilet paper, send that piece of junk back with a note that they need to STOP carrying those humming carbons, and X1 tables, worthless junk!

 

Actually nothing wrong with the tonearm, it’s a good one- there’s a reason why Linn chose this as a basis arm for the LP12 Majik. Otherwise Pro-Ject still seems to have a bit of a problem.

 

I was not clear, I was speaking of the terrible arm that is on the Humming Carbon, that's the one I found so terribly deficient.

 

This is very unfortunate.... What is interesting is that Fremer just reviewed this exact turntable at the end of October and he wrote that it was noise free.

 

Via stethoscope! And it measured very well for Mikey and Paul Messenger at hi-fi news. Hum and noise were the same as the MoFi UltraDeck and Technics SL-1000R. Unfortunate indeed.

 

It does seem a bit odd how I've yet to see a professional review of an entry level Pro-ject TT that mentions hum etc. Not saying that the dreaded Pro-ject hum doesn't exist as there's obviously a problem, but it does seem a little strange when noise is so widely reported by buyers.

Explanations anyone?

 

Perhaps it’s just the odds. They make something like 120,000 turntables per year, according to the owner. Even if they made 1,000 noisy ones, 99% of them might not be.

 

I Think Linn use a better Project arm than that on the Carbon. Clearly the issues can't be solved at the projected retail price. This deck must cost less than £50 to make in EU. If they had them made in China maybe improvements could be built in for the cost? It's senseless as the company make good product at much higher prices but it sort of gives you built in doubts about anything they produce. Why introduce 'new' models with the same problem when they are aware of the faulty design? My guess is most who buy at this price level have low end set ups that don't highlight the hum or inexperienced think it's normal. Just don't expect real hi-fi for this money these days. Must be a huge skip full of these at the Project factory in Slovakia. Decent vinyl record playback can't be done on the cheap.

 

Because they don't care about quality and people will buy them anyway.

 

I would love for someone to take five stock samples chosen at random and run tests on them to see if they have the 120hz noise. My guess is they would all have the noise, with some of the examples being louder than others.

 

I have a very quiet Debut III that I bought used in around 2010 for my wife’s system. They’re not all noisy.

 

I wonder why they can't work this out then? My guess it's variation in the quality of the cheap motors. Now if they are telling customers to return them it may be that there is not an economical way of selecting good motors given the very low budget for producing these. Actually cheaper to recycle them. I would worry that basically the same motors are used on the more expensive models.

 

The motors that Pro-Jects uses are the same motors that many companies use, IIRC. Premontec/Allied Motion whatever. Cheap industrial motors bought in bulk. The noise is likely not just down to getting a bad motor but also the motor mount design of Pro-Ject turntables.

 

I have a Music Hall MMF 2.3 this as I understand has the Xpression (2?) carbon arm (/w glued alloy head shell) and the same DC motor used on the Debut.

I original had a hum that would come on generally after a few minutes of play some times I’d lose the left channel entirely. Tried all the shielded cables, grounding, even pre-amps, ultimately shelved the table for a year, when I pulled it back out issue returned. One of the symptoms was that if I put my hands near the headshell I could change the tone of the hum. I decided to investigate the tone arm wires. Sure enough as soon as I cut the shrink tube on the first wire the whole wire dropped away from the clip.

Resoldered the clip and the table is dead silent now.
I have also switched to a separated tonearm ground and RCA cable as I had issues with noise from phono cables which used the tone arm ground as an rca shield.

Im not sure if that helps anyone but I highly recommend checking the soldering on tone arm clips if you have any hum, even more so if touching anything in the chain causes the noise to occur or change in any way.