My experience with a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon TT

just to add to the problems is the Pro-ject rep in the U.S.

completely blew me off and said my table was too close to my speakers...so i sent him this pic







and he says "can you put it in a different room"

i said "whaaaat...?"

and then he wouldn't respond again...so i emailed them in Europe and they just kept giving me this guys email and didn't respond to anything...

 

Hahaha. No that's no good. :lol: seriously? He said put in another room? What a m0r0n.

What is that thing to the right of the turntable? I can't make it out with my phone. If its electronic it could cause a hum that close to the TT.

 

its my box set albums...i've moved them around and no change in anything...still huge rumble issues

swear thats exactly what he said....

massive face-palm

 

Just suggestions based on my experience -

I had faint hum, I removed the screws that you added washers to and it is gone.

Mine sounded like crap, couldn't get the tracking force dialed in with the stock counterweight and my new cart (OM 30), had to order a new 50g from overseas, difference is night and day when dialed in correctly. I think 1.25 - 1.75 is recommended, I need to be 1.75 - 1.90 to dial it in, cannot do with the stock counterweight.

I have no issues with tonearm and the acrylic platter, it is same size as stock with mat no?

I removed the cover hinges so I just lift on and off manually (completely removed for listening).

I'm not exactly a refined pallette but mine sounds very good to me with speed box s and acrylic platter, there is certainly no hum.

Sorry you had a bad experience....

 

Nice looking set up and I'm sorry for your issues.

I have had nothing but a great experience with my carbon and at the risk of sounding dramatic, it changed my life. I bought a used technics on a whim a couple years ago fell in love with the sound of vinyl and upgraded to the pro-ject a couple months later.

It is an entry level table to be sure but it is audiophile grade entry level. It has since been relagated to a backup table but I still use it and I actually took it with me on vacation last week. I played about 70 records over four days and I didn't feel like i was missing my vpi classic at all.



This is what i packed and set up on vacation. I will tell you that there was a very bad humm and buzz when I first plugged it in. The problem was in my wiring.

This is a "backup" system with an amp I purchased in 1997. I have about ten times as much money invested in my main ride and it certainly is not ten times better than this backup.

 

I don't want to sound like I am defending my TT choice, but I guess I am at least in the case of the claim that the acrylic plate sits higher than stock, they are exactly the same (pics are with 180g record) -

 

It's exactly the same as the iron platter. No question with regards to height.

 

OP claimed the acrylic platter raises it "a lot", I was just pointing out that is not accurate, so maybe there are other exaggerations in the "review".

 

Nice work

 

All I can tell you is I have a 2M Red on my late sister's 1979 Pioneer PL400 (my bedroom system) and when I compared the sound of that cart to my Shure V15 Type Iv with Jico stylus (the regular one not the SAS) sibilant frequencies at the end of records tracks much better on the 2M Red than the Shure. It seems that the arm/cart combo here works wonderfully. My understanding is that the Carbon comes with a 2M Red installed, so my thought would be the company thinks they are suitably paired.

The other question is, has the cart been adjusted using a protractor or some sort of alignment device? You can download some very good protractors and print them up to use when setting up your tables. Sometimes a slight adjustment is all that is needed to fix some IGD type issues. Other times it is the limitations of the arm/cart.

 

couldn't use my michell clamp with the acrylic platter because there wasn't enough spindle left...so you tell me...

take second shot again with ruler flat...its leaning back

 

So your experience was vastly different than the pic's I posted? I guess that is possible but not exactly probable. The acrylic platter is exactly the same as stock with mat, they had to design it that way as you have no vertical adjustment on the tonearm. Something doesn't make sense....

 

either the platter wasn't seated properly ( which would be hard to do) or the clamp wasn't a match for the table. Did that clamp work with the iron platter?

 

really going to ask me that....cmon

 

no it isn't...on the original debut carbon, its higher...i switched back and forth about 25 times before i sold it...the acrylic platter is thicker than the steel...it has to be, no way you could make it the same thickness

 

If you are talking to me, hit the reply first. I get confused. So I guess the answer is "yes" the clamp worked with the iron platter.

 

In your photos there is less spindle visible with the acrylic platter in place. That's the problem with photos taken at slightly different angles. Even so, there does seem to be less spindle available with the acrylic platter in place.

 

This thread came up a perfect time for me. I've been thinking about trying my hand at vinyl ripping and was looking into "upgrading" my turntable to a Debut Carbon. Right now I have a Yamaha YP-D6 (1977) turntable that really works fine. Before even seeing this I was wondering if a modern table would even be an upgrade at all... now after reading this, I'm really having second thoughts.

 

There is a lesson here. Good Lp production requires investing rather more in a TT especially if you have half decent amp and speakers. Just going to exaggerate the relatively minor problems you get with something made down to a price. People with cheap systems or new to hi-fi probably don't notice them much. However the TT in question should have been returned for exchange or refund when new.

 

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/simple-question-about-pro-ject-acrylic-platter.349674/

read top post

 

my bad....i waited too long after i got the second one

 

If you can find any hardware that doesn't have thread on here saying how bad it is, then I would stay away from that. People thrash Macintosh.

Like a Honda Civic, the Debut Carbon is very capable. Drive it 100mph and it will be a little more noisy than a Lexus.

 

You'll have to buy something a lot better than a Debut Carbon to surpass a decent, well-built, properly functioning turntable from the late-70s or 80s. IMO, of course.

 

live and learn

 

my review based on my experience with this table for a full year...as i stated at the beginning "your experience may be different from mine"

people are saying its the same height , and i'm saying it isn't...searched for 5 seconds and found someone saying same thing...

back in the 80's i was "jamming tunes", now i just listen to music, its not being driven loud at all