ProJect TT upgrade?

[Squishman]

About four years ago, I bought a ProJect Debut Carbon turntable. I have since upgraded the cart from a red to a blue Ortofon. I think the TT and the cart were good bang for the buck. I wonder though, would an acrylic platter ($64 on Amazon) be a worthwhile upgrade? The Amazon description says not to use a tt mat and to place LP's directly on the platter. What can anyone tell me about this possible upgrade? Waste of money?

 

[Verdinut]

About four years ago, I bought a ProJect Debut Carbon turntable. I have since upgraded the cart from a red to a blue Ortofon. I think the TT and the cart were good bang for the buck. I wonder though, would an acrylic platter ($64 on Amazon) be a worthwhile upgrade? The Amazon description says not to use a tt mat and to place LP's directly on the platter. What can anyone tell me about this possible upgrade? Waste of money?

I wouldn't bother to spend money on an acrylic platter. I suggest you continue using the mat which came with the tt. IMO, what the seller suggests looks like some snake oil stuff.

 

[Mikado463]

I tend to agree, IMO I'd keep saving my $$ for better TT down the road, assuming your staying serious about vinyl

 

[lovinthehd]

If your current platter/mat are sufficient....there's not much else to be had. If you do change platter, would that affect relative arm height and can you adjust for it?

 

[TLS Guy]

About four years ago, I bought a ProJect Debut Carbon turntable. I have since upgraded the cart from a red to a blue Ortofon. I think the TT and the cart were good bang for the buck. I wonder though, would an acrylic platter ($64 on Amazon) be a worthwhile upgrade? The Amazon description says not to use a tt mat and to place LP's directly on the platter. What can anyone tell me about this possible upgrade? Waste of money?

Waste of money. The best upgrade to any turntable is a Cecil E. Watts Dust Bug.

As it happens, I just bought one on eBay, and it is on its way. I posted here about it. There were no bids, and I did not want it to come to harm, so I paid $30.00 for it including tax and shipping. I will sell it to you for $30.00. These are hard to find and don't come up often.

 

[Eppie]

About four years ago, I bought a ProJect Debut Carbon turntable. I have since upgraded the cart from a red to a blue Ortofon. I think the TT and the cart were good bang for the buck. I wonder though, would an acrylic platter ($64 on Amazon) be a worthwhile upgrade? The Amazon description says not to use a tt mat and to place LP's directly on the platter. What can anyone tell me about this possible upgrade? Waste of money?

I got the acrylic platter for my Carbon EVO but I only purchased it for the aesthetics. I really like the look of the platter with a gloss plinth. No noticeable change in sound quality but unlike a metal platter the acrylic will not 'ring'. I purchased the ProJect platter to ensure that the height would be correct.

One note: If you use a cleaning brush on the LP while it is on an acrylic platter, the LP can slip as the acrylic platter provides less friction. The stock mat does hot have that issue.

 

[Squishman]

Waste of money. The best upgrade to any turntable is a Cecil E. Watts Dust Bug.

As it happens, I just bought one on eBay, and it is on its way. I posted here about it. There were no bids, and I did not want it to come to harm, so I paid $30.00 for it including tax and shipping. I will sell it to you for $30.00. These are hard to find and don't come up often.

Sure! I buy it from ye.

 

[TLS Guy]

Sure! I buy it from ye.

You know where to find me. It arrived last night. Pretty sure it has never been used.

 

[Squishman]

I actually use this mat I got when the Revolver stereo remix came out.

 

[Squishman]

You know where to find me. It arrived last night. Pretty sure it has never been used.

Ok thx!

 

[Squishman]

I tend to agree, IMO I'd keep saving my $$ for better TT down the road, assuming your staying serious about vinyl

I am serious about vinyl and my relatively low budget TT seems to cut the mustard just fine. Like getting an acrylic platter, a TT costing double or triple what I paid would likely be a waste of $$.

 

[Squishman]

You know where to find me. It arrived last night. Pretty sure it has never been used.

I'll give you a holler tomorrow! Thx again!

 

[Squishman]

If you notice in the photo I have a cue lift device. Works like a charm for LP's. Picks up too early if I play a 45 though. I only have a about four or five 45's worth playing. So that's fine.

 

[Squishman]

Waste of money. The best upgrade to any turntable is a Cecil E. Watts Dust Bug.

As it happens, I just bought one on eBay, and it is on its way. I posted here about it. There were no bids, and I did not want it to come to harm, so I paid $30.00 for it including tax and shipping. I will sell it to you for $30.00. These are hard to find and don't come up often.

Mark, does it work fine with belt-drive turntables? I read this and wondered what you would think about it. It is about the 3rd comment down. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/watts-dust-bug.16201/

 

[TLS Guy]

Mark, does it work fine with belt-drive turntables? I read this and wondered what you would think about it. It is about the 3rd comment down. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/watts-dust-bug.16201/

Yes, the Dust Bug does produce a little drag. However your turntable motor has a highly accurate quartz oscillator to keep speed constant, which will easily keep your speed correct, with or without the Dust Bug.

There is a bit of interesting history about this though. In the sixties and seventies use of the Dust Bug was almost universal, especially in the UK. Thorens assumed that the Dust Bug would be used. They actually designed their turntables, like my Thorens TD 150 to run just a little fast and to run exactly correct speed when the Dust Bug was used. I have a TD 150 but it has always been used with the Dust Bug. My Garrards are high torque, and in any case have speed adjustment. My Thorens TD 125 Mk II also has speed adjustment.

 

[Squishman]

Yes, the Dust Bug does produce a little drag. However your turntable motor has a highly accurate quartz oscillator to keep speed constant, which will easily keep your speed correct, with or without the Dust Bug.

There is a bit of interesting history about this though. In the sixties and seventies use of the Dust Bug was almost universal, especially in the UK. Thorens assumed that the Dust Bug would be used. They actually designed their turntables, like my Thorens TD 150 to run just a little fast and to run exactly correct speed when the Dust Bug was used. I have a TD 150 but it has always been used with the Dust Bug. My Garrards are high torque, and in any case have speed adjustment. My Thorens TD 125 Mk II also has speed adjustment.

Good to know.

 

[highfigh]

Mark, does it work fine with belt-drive turntables? I read this and wondered what you would think about it. It is about the 3rd comment down. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/watts-dust-bug.16201/

The drive system can't matter- the Dust Bug uses gravity to keep the brushes in contact with the surface and the bristles are what causes it to follow the groove toward the label.

 

[highfigh]

Yes, the Dust Bug does produce a little drag. However your turntable motor has a highly accurate quartz oscillator to keep speed constant, which will easily keep your speed correct, with or without the Dust Bug.

There is a bit of interesting history about this though. In the sixties and seventies use of the Dust Bug was almost universal, especially in the UK. Thorens assumed that the Dust Bug would be used. They actually designed their turntables, like my Thorens TD 150 to run just a little fast and to run exactly correct speed when the Dust Bug was used. I have a TD 150 but it has always been used with the Dust Bug. My Garrards are high torque, and in any case have speed adjustment. My Thorens TD 125 Mk II also has speed adjustment.

Seriously? How much downward force and friction result from using a Dust Bug? I haven't used a Dust Bug in close to 50 years, but would doubt it's much more than 10 grams at the brushes (using the hole closest to it) and the friction is low. Maybe the designed speed was to compensate for the record slipping on the mat more than the platter slowing.

 

[Mikado463]

TLS, check out post #292 ......

Turntables Gallery - Page 6

My “new” table just showed up via freight service. C9EC2C1B-A808-4F84-B390-64255FD74155.jpeg

www.audioshark.org

 

[TLS Guy]

TLS, check out post #292 ......

Turntables Gallery - Page 6

My “new” table just showed up via freight service. C9EC2C1B-A808-4F84-B390-64255FD74155.jpeg

www.audioshark.org

That Thorens turntable was produced to compete with the Garrard 301. It was not as good though. You could just hear rumble in those but not the 301. That is why there are far more Garrards around than those Thorens TD 124s. The PU is an Ortofon SPGU series which was moving coil. The problem was they attached the step up transformer to the back of the cartridge, which made it very heavy. So you had a large mass in the headshell. We had on of those cartridges at the OP for a while. Ortofon improved their cartridges quite quickly and made the transformers external. In the early stereo era, it was pretty much Ortofon or Decca ffss for the PU cartridge.