Please suggest a good Cartridge for Project Debut 3 TT

[Hiten]

Hi
you can bind small piece of weight with rubberband but as you said it will look clumsy.
Pressure gauge is helpful. After you have finished setting cartridge and alignment you put pressure gauge on turntable platter and put stylus with tonearm on it it will give you exact weight/force your stylus is exerting on record groove. this figure you can adjust on your counterweight dial.
Regds.

 

[mahiruha]

Hello,
well I have been reading about this Shure M97 xe cartridge. People are saying it is advisable to use it with the brush down and add .5 gm to 1 gm tracking force in addition to 1.5gms that is recomended for this cartridge. What is the experience of the users in this forum regarding that? I found with the brush down the sound is better much more quiter.
Thanks.

 

[anilva]

Hello,
well I have been reading about this Shure M97 xe cartridge. People are saying it is advisable to use it with the brush down and add .5 gm to 1 gm tracking force in addition to 1.5gms that is recomended for this cartridge. What is the experience of the users in this forum regarding that? I found with the brush down the sound is better much more quiter.
Thanks.

Yes, you are right about addition of .5 grams with the brush position down. However the sound will be little softened and also this position is recommended for warped records where high trackability is required and not for playing normal records. Purest sound is obtained with the brush up according to Shure.

Cheers.

 

[mahiruha]

Hello guys,
hope you all had a lovely christmas and had lovely cakes. My effort with the shure cart is coming quite well. I am just mesmerized with the sound produced by it with the Best of Diana Krall vinyl. I must admit its not my genre of music bit too slow for me. But the sound qualtiy is so wonderful I spend almost 6 hours listening to that vinyl in last 3 days. I also got this Harry Belafonte live at carnegie hall vinyl which is of 200 gm weight. It is also playing beuatifully but I here some sound which is like the cart is bumping to the surface of the record. I was thinking since it is a 200 gm lp so the thinckness has increased so I need to increase the counter weight to cater for that extra thickness. Do we need to make any change to the counterweight when listening to a heavier lp?
Thanks.

 

[Rajiv]

It is also playing beuatifully but I here some sound which is like the cart is bumping to the surface of the record. I was thinking since it is a 200 gm lp so the thinckness has increased so I need to increase the counter weight to cater for that extra thickness. Do we need to make any change to the counterweight when listening to a heavier lp?

Hi,

If the cartridge is bottoming out(i.e.touching the LP during playback) then you have to increase the height of the tonearm.I do not know what tone arm you have but most will have a height adjustment near the arm pillar.If it does not (like some Rega arms) then you need to add spacers beneath the tonearm mounting plate.

Also, if the LP is warped slightly the extra thickness of the 200gm LP and the warp may be causing the problem.Increasing the tracking weight will agravate the problem and cause stylus/record damage.

If the problem does not happen with most of your records then don't bother.However if you have a lot of 200gm or LP's that are thicker than normal you will have to change the height.Remember if the height is changed then you will also have to realign the cartridge,VTA etc.

Regards
Rajiv

 

[mahiruha]

Hi Rajiv,
thanks for your reply. This is the only 200 gm LP I have and it is a brand new one.THe sound is like as if the cartridge is bumping against the record surface and can be heard during the quiet passage. Unfortunately MY project debut 3 TT doen't have any height adjustment. I can live with a little bit of bumping sound with one record but will it damage the record?
Thanks.

 

[dillihifi]

The problem of bumping occurs when the VTA is not set right it has nothing to do with the counterweight. The counterweight should produce enough force so that the stylus moves over the surface of the LP without skating or does not move at all. The height can adjusted by means of screws in the arm pillar. My project genie does have this adjustment. Yours being a debut should have the similar kind of adjustments.

Basically there are 2 / 3 adjustments one is tracking force by weight / placement of the counterweight, then azimuth by having the needle perpendicular to the lp surface, third the vta which adjusts the height of the stylus till the arm is parallel to the record surface. Take your time have patience it will work out.

 

[mahiruha]

Hi diili,
thanks for your reply. I checked the project genie manual.It is same as project debut 3 TT. I am not getting the the screw you are referring. could you please post a picture?
Thanks.

 

[dillihifi]

Hi as I am out of station I am sorry I cannot post a picture. There is a key which has to be loosened by the right angled tool (the bigger one) at the base of the pillar (there are two holes there and can be adjusted by the tool) then the pillar can be moved vertically. (Like the one on the counterweight)

Maybe the Debut does not have any vertical adjustment
"(This is perhaps the achilles heel of the Debut 3. Now I was hearing that MC Cartridges are not reccomended for the Debut because the metal platter may damage the magnet (although my MC1 worked fine till the stylus wore out) , and due to the non adjustable VTA on the debut's arm the only real upgrade options are the Ortofon OM20 and OM 30."

 

[Hiten]

I checked the project genie manual.It is same as project debut 3 TT. I am not getting the the screw you are referring. could you please post a picture?
Thanks.

From your previous posts (about counterweight) my guess is your cartridge is putting to much pressure on record. If you are doing height adjustments for one record my opinion is not to tinker with factory calibrated alignments. (stylus needle angle is important for sound quality). For thick records try to play on thinner rubber mat if possible.
Regards
Hiten

 

[soulforged]

Hi Mahi, please see if the downforce is too high that is causing the stylus to bottom out...also, which notch is the counterweight set on...I keep it in the second notch but then I have the OEM Ortofon cartridge, you could try putting it on the 1st and see if it helps...

 

[mahiruha]

Hi soulforged,
well I tried few things and finally it was the problem with down force. It was set to 15 before when I reduced it to 12.5 now I don't hear the bumping sound any more. Actually literature suggested that 15 shoud be the desired down force and it worked for most of the vinyls but now it seems that 12.5 is the optimum setting.
Thanks.

 

[anilva]

Hi soulforged,
well I tried few things and finally it was the problem with down force. It was set to 15 before when I reduced it to 12.5 now I don't hear the bumping sound any more. Actually literature suggested that 15 shoud be the desired down force and it worked for most of the vinyls but now it seems that 12.5 is the optimum setting.
Thanks.

Mahi,

I hope what you said is a typo. You cannot have a downforce of 15 or 12.5 grams. It must be around 1.5 or 1.25 grams for Shure M97. If it is 15 grams, your LPs are toast...

Cheers.

 

[mahiruha]

Yeah that's right. I was unsure about the unit that's why I didn't put any unit.

 

[mahiruha]

Hi Guys,
yesterday I received my ortofon 2m red cartridge. Due to too much experiementation with my Shure M97X cart the needle got bent so it was crying for a replacement. It just looked odd. The ortofon is really good the thing I liked most about it is how easy it is to fit it in the arm. No fiddling with nuts and bolts.Just tight the screws in the cartridge body itself and I am done. I used a two point protractor to position the cart and over hang and it is really easy to set this cart. I adjusted the VTF of 2gms and it is playing very decent music. I also got matching counterweight since stock project counterweight doesn't support this cart. Sound wise it is much more full bodied as compared to shure with better midrange. The only problem with this cartridge is the cap is really fiddly to put in place.
Thanks.

 

[malvai]

That's a nice one mahi.... tell though bro, why you didn't consider a Rondo Red from the same manufacturer?

 

[stevieboy]

Congrats Mahiruha,

That's a good cart. Enjoy the new sound!

Malvai,

Isn't the Rondo Red much more expensive? Perhaps might be overkill for the Debut? Though am sure it'd sound better am guessing... I faintly remember the Rondo line at 8-9k+.

Regards

 

[malvai]

@Stevieboy: Yup its more expensive at about 350 USD +. But a great cart and should work in the Debut III as well.
It's a very detailed cart and can compete with carts twice the price!
Though, in all fairness, the 2m is a killer at its price point.

 

[mahiruha]

Hi Malvai,
Rondo red would be a overkill for project debut III in terms of price. Actually it costs much more than the table itself. Also the fact is rondo red is a low output moving coil cartridge and I have read at several places that for some reasons people didn't have good experiences while trying a moving coil cartridge with project debut III . The metal base and paltter causes problem.
Thanks.

 

[mahiruha]

Congrats Mahiruha,

That's a good cart. Enjoy the new sound!

Malvai,

Isn't the Rondo Red much more expensive? Perhaps might be overkill for the Debut? Though am sure it'd sound better am guessing... I faintly remember the Rondo line at 8-9k+.

Regards

Thnaks Steven. I got a great deal on 2m red. Just paid $100 shipped to my house and for some strange reason custom guys didn't charge anything.