C

cpd

Full Audioholic
Last night I went to put a record on my Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Esprit TT only to find the tone arm sitting in the middle of the platter. The lift arm failed to work and ultimately I realized that the stylus was broken off. I got the lift arm to work, but obviously I need a new cartridge or stylus. Ah the joys of parenthood!

The TT has an Ortofon 2M red cartridge on it. I was happy with it but if there is an upgrade for a little more I would give it a whirl. I have never replaced a stylus or cartridge so something not too fussy is also required. So, who has some recommendations?

Thanks for the help.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Many with those Ortofons say getting the Blue stylus is an upgrade/improvement (and will work with your current cartridge body). Does that tt have a way to lock the tonearm in place? Better would be to not allow access to the tt at all (strap the dust cover in place perhaps when you're not using it?)
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Last night I went to put a record on my Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Esprit TT only to find the tone arm sitting in the middle of the platter. The lift arm failed to work and ultimately I realized that the stylus was broken off. I got the lift arm to work, but obviously I need a new cartridge or stylus. Ah the joys of parenthood!

The TT has an Ortofon 2M red cartridge on it. I was happy with it but if there is an upgrade for a little more I would give it a whirl. I have never replaced a stylus or cartridge so something not too fussy is also required. So, who has some recommendations?

Thanks for the help.
Get the Blue stylus, that is the cheapest way to upgrade. The 2M can be upgraded to the Blue.
 
C

cpd

Full Audioholic
Many with those Ortofons say getting the Blue stylus is an upgrade/improvement (and will work with your current cartridge body). Does that tt have a way to lock the tonearm in place? Better would be to not allow access to the tt at all (strap the dust cover in place perhaps when you're not using it?)
The tt sits in a custom made cabinet with lighting above. Aesthetically, I am not going to put the dust cover on. But I will look into ways to lock the tone arm into its cradle.

Thanks to all for the advice on the Ortofon stylus. Good to learn of the easy upgrade path to the blue stylus. Just placed the order. Should be back in business tomorrow.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
The tt sits in a custom made cabinet with lighting above. Aesthetically, I am not going to put the dust cover on. But I will look into ways to lock the tone arm into its cradle.

Thanks to all for the advice on the Ortofon stylus. Good to learn of the easy upgrade path to the blue stylus. Just placed the order. Should be back in business tomorrow.
And good luck with the little fingers!
 
C

cpd

Full Audioholic
And good luck with the little fingers!
The fingers aren't so little anymore or the likely culprit. More likely a Dad is downstairs game of indoor baseball with an errant throw to the plate or some such nonsense. All I got for an explanation was a shoulder shrug and an "I dunno."
 
Replicant 7

Replicant 7

Audioholic Samurai
Last night I went to put a record on my Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Esprit TT only to find the tone arm sitting in the middle of the platter. The lift arm failed to work and ultimately I realized that the stylus was broken off. I got the lift arm to work, but obviously I need a new cartridge or stylus. Ah the joys of parenthood!

The TT has an Ortofon 2M red cartridge on it. I was happy with it but if there is an upgrade for a little more I would give it a whirl. I have never replaced a stylus or cartridge so something not too fussy is also required. So, who has some recommendations?

Thanks for the help.
The Ortofon Blue is better that's the one I just ordered to replace on my TT. I can't do the TT cartridges that Doc has on his TT's. I couldn't justify spending that much my TT isn't worth that much. Thinking of a new TT though, something with a belt drive
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
The fingers aren't so little anymore or the likely culprit. More likely a Dad is downstairs game of indoor baseball with an errant throw to the plate or some such nonsense. All I got for an explanation was a shoulder shrug and an "I dunno."
Do you have a cat? Cats like to mess with tonearms.

If there's any possibility of a stylus being damaged in ANY way, I would recommend using something to prevent it.
 
C

cpd

Full Audioholic
Do you have a cat? Cats like to mess with tonearms.

If there's any possibility of a stylus being damaged in ANY way, I would recommend using something to prevent it.
The TT is 7 or 8 years old. Probably time for a new stylus anyway. First time anything has happened to it. No cats. It is definitely a kid thing. I used to put the stylus cap on it after each use, but got lazy. I will probably get back into the habit of doing that again.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
The TT is 7 or 8 years old. Probably time for a new stylus anyway. First time anything has happened to it. No cats. It is definitely a kid thing. I used to put the stylus cap on it after each use, but got lazy. I will probably get back into the habit of doing that again.
If you look at my turntable case, you will see it can be locked.



The family room TT also has a door on that part of the cabinet. All the grand kids are older and responsible now, so there is no lock, but a door is essential in my view to prevent accidents.

 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
The TT is 7 or 8 years old. Probably time for a new stylus anyway. First time anything has happened to it. No cats. It is definitely a kid thing. I used to put the stylus cap on it after each use, but got lazy. I will probably get back into the habit of doing that again.
Unless you used it constantly and never cleaned your LPs, 7-8 years isn't a death sentence for a stylus. If you have access to a decent microscope, you can check the tip for wear. I found one at Goodwill, for $13 and that made it possible for me to begin using my cartridge after a long stretch of not playing my vinyl.

If the LP had been removed from the platter, using the guard should have been the next thing to do- I don't use one because my tonearm has a good clip and nobody else can touch it.
 
C

cpd

Full Audioholic
If you look at my turntable case, you will see it can be locked.



The family room TT also has a door on that part of the cabinet. All the grand kids are older and responsible now, so there is no lock, but a door is essential in my view to prevent accidents.

Regardless of the risks, in my set up I don't want to put doors on the cabinets. I like the aesthetics of it as is:

Marantz In Cabinet - 2.jpg


Just my preference. My kid is 11. I made it this long without problems. Fingers crossed.

The Blue arrived yesterday and installed in a snap. Sounds great.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Hello all,

I recently got my stereo equipment back after an extended break (essentially it all lived at my parent's house while I lived a few states away). However, now that I have everything hooked up, I’m finding that the sound I’m getting from my record player to be not so great. Granted, I have a lower end set-up (A 90s Denon AV-900, a Technics SL-1500, and Polk R-50 speakers), but playing CDs through this setup (with a Technics SL-PD5) sounds fine to my ears. Case and point, I was playing a UK Chrysalis/Island first press of Jethro Tull’s Benefit, which sounded fuzzy and distorted, which I know should not be the case for that pressing (I’m not talking surface noise, it is the sound quality). Basically every track sounded like it had inner groove distortion, which I don’t think should be happening.

As such, I am thinking about replacing the cartridge on my turntable. I’ve had the turntable for about 9 years and I have never changed out the cartridge before, so I would imagine the time would be right to do that. I am not sure what is currently on there, I bought the player used and have no idea how long this cartridge has been on there.

While I love these forums and frequently post, I’m a total novice when it comes to equipment, so I’d love some assistance with this. I’m looking into getting one of the Audio Technica MicroLine cartridges, but I have no idea if that will be good for my setup. How do I found out about things like capacitance and whatnot (which is something I had not heard of until I started looking into this)? Is it difficult to set up a MicroLine cartridge? Is there another cartridge I should be looking into?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
From what you say, your cartridge is probably worn out. Playing records with a worn out stylus will do permanent damage to you records.

Audio Technica cartridges tend to be good value.

What is your budget? When you do get a new cartridge, then you need to install it correctly. That means setting the tracking force and antiskating, and over hang correctly. To set the latter requires an alignment protractor.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Hello all,

I recently got my stereo equipment back after an extended break (essentially it all lived at my parent's house while I lived a few states away). However, now that I have everything hooked up, I’m finding that the sound I’m getting from my record player to be not so great. Granted, I have a lower end set-up (A 90s Denon AV-900, a Technics SL-1500, and Polk R-50 speakers), but playing CDs through this setup (with a Technics SL-PD5) sounds fine to my ears. Case and point, I was playing a UK Chrysalis/Island first press of Jethro Tull’s Benefit, which sounded fuzzy and distorted, which I know should not be the case for that pressing (I’m not talking surface noise, it is the sound quality). Basically every track sounded like it had inner groove distortion, which I don’t think should be happening.

As such, I am thinking about replacing the cartridge on my turntable. I’ve had the turntable for about 9 years and I have never changed out the cartridge before, so I would imagine the time would be right to do that. I am not sure what is currently on there, I bought the player used and have no idea how long this cartridge has been on there.

While I love these forums and frequently post, I’m a total novice when it comes to equipment, so I’d love some assistance with this. I’m looking into getting one of the Audio Technica MicroLine cartridges, but I have no idea if that will be good for my setup. How do I found out about things like capacitance and whatnot (which is something I had not heard of until I started looking into this)? Is it difficult to set up a MicroLine cartridge? Is there another cartridge I should be looking into?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I would start by inspecting the stylus and checking the tracking force/anti-skate settings. I have seen many tonearms that wouldn't track at all and it turned out that it had a wad of stuff surrounding the tip. Once cleaned, they were fine.

Setting up any cartridge requires taking the time to make adjustments, usually with a good tonearm protractor- this can be downloaded or, if you have some used record stores in your area, you might be able to find a good LP test disc. These came with a protractor and good instructions and companies like Mobile Fidelity, Shure, Audio Technica and others produced them.

When turntables and LPs were still being made before the CD took over, AT's microline cartridges were popular- if you can get an AT-150ML, I would recommend it.

What cartridge is on this turntable? Have you ever cleaned the stylus? If not, and especially if you use a wet record cleaner, I can almost guarantee that the tip is covered by schmutz (the technical description).

I found a microscope at Goodwill while I was driving to a Goodwill store to look for turntables and thought "It would be great to find a microscope, to check my cartridges". No turntables, but I found a scope on top of a cart at the end cap- worst case if you can't find one, get a couple of cheap magnifying glasses and use both, moving them so they provide maximum magnification. YOu could also call a stereo store in your area (if you have any) to see if they have a microscope- we all did, back in the 'dark ages'.
 

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