2. analog
  3. 119224-73037

Integrating a new turntable into existing system and having sound quality problems...

Hi, I just a purchased a brand new turntable a Project Carbon debut and a Project Phono Box and integrated them into my existing stereo system and have run into some sound quality issues.


Problems

1. The first album I played was a brand new Diana Krall Wallflower album.  Her voice seemed very thin and crackly (not the traditional cracks and pops of vinyl) which was surprising given her voice is so smooth when listening to her CDs.  I brought the album back to the store and they played it on their cheap system and it seemed to work fine.

2. None of the other albums had the same level of thinness and tininess as the diana Krall album but they all seemed light on bass compared to listening to CDs on the same system.

3. One odd thing i noticed on the Diana Krall album was that my tonearm kept wanting to come off the album at the start rather than grab a groove and work inwards.  not a problem i have experienced with the other 6 albums I have been playing.


My Setup

Rotel RCD 991 as a transport

Bryston Dac

Mastersound compact 845 integrated - Single end triode with 2x30 watts

Pioneer speakers S-03EX - their TAD  trickle down speakers - not the usual Pioneer speaker


I added the Project Carbon Debut, plugged into the Project Phono Box, plugged into the AUX input of the integrated amp (therefore I am using both the pre and power functions of the integrated)


Any help on troubleshooting the poor sound quality issue would be appreciated.  I wasn't sure if it was related to

1. vinyl sounds like crap compared to CD (not likely) but it does in the Diana krall situation

2. is it just the wrong synergy of the system?

3. is the turntable not good enough to match the quality of the amp and speakers?

4. are there adjustments that I should be making to the tonearm to have more down ward force to pick up more bass???

5.do I need a higher quality phono stage?

6. should I get a higher quality phono pre amp and skip the pre amp stage in my integrated - although I assume given the build quality of my integrated, I would need to pay a pretty penny to get a comparable or better stand alone phono preamp.


Any input would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

vwman111
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
It "sounds" to me like either the L RCA jack out from the table or the L interconnect is bad.  However, one final thing you could try is to ground the phono box to the integrated, so that there is a continuous ground from the table to the integrated amp.  Maybe you have done that, it was not clear to me.  Good luck. 
mmakshak
589 posts
 
You may have 2 problems, but one symptom might be alleviated by reducing your anti-skate.
vwman111 OP
4 posts
 

I visited the store where i purchased the turntable for the owner to take a look at it.  the crackling in the right channel was present on his system as well.  He thought that the poor sound quality was related to poor tracking since the cartridge was brand new.  He tested it on a tracking album and tweaked the counter weight to be much heavier than the manual called for.  he suggested i play it like that for 100-200 hours and then slowly back off the counter weight by .5 at a time. Also adjusted the anti skate accordingly to new counter weight position.


Solved the problem of the crackling speaker which was present even without an album playing and took care of the horrible sounding vocals on the Diana Krall album.


thank you everyone for your help!

swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
I'm really glad that it's all good, but hard to see how poor tracking could result in noise with no album playing.
minkwelder
256 posts
 
A new cartridge will not require a "much heavier" setting to break in. It sounds to me that either the cartridge is defective, or something may be interfering with the smooth vertical movement of the tonearm. Tight bearings?
More to discover