Ortofon Red/Pro-ject Carbon Debut combination; rolled off hi-frequencies. Solutions?


Hi there.

I just bought a Project Carbon Debut SB with a factory equipped Ortofon Red. After 30 hours break-in the mids are fine (smooth, rich and full), bass is a little fat but tolerable but the highs, as I expected were rolled off; but more than I expected and not acceptable to me. Obviously, there will be compromises in a "bargain" turntable but mechanically and sonically I think it's good basic platform to start with.
 
The TT is playing back through the inboard phono stage of my Musical Fidelity A3.2 integrated. I've swapped interconnects, starting with Audioquest Diamondback (nice mids, darker top end) and Wireworld Equinox 6's (brighter top but not much inprovement in air, and surprisingly a bit grainy and obscure in the mids).

I'm thinking my 1st step is upgrading the cartridge to either the Ortofon Blue, Shelter 201 of the new Audio Technica VM540ML; the replacement for the old AT400ML which was a bit too bright but otherwise highly musical and faithful in reproduction (I had one in my Music Hall MMF5.1) but there aren't any reviews of it to be found on the web or in hi-fi mags.

I am on a budget and before I start throwing hundreds of bucks around and burning months of experimentation on swapping out cables, outboard phono stages and cartridges I thought I'd throw this subject open to discussion to my brothers of the cloth who have the same high fidelity point of view as I.

Any recommendations or opinions are welcome. 


morbius2130aol

Showing 1 response by rar1

I started out with the Pro-ject Debut Carbon and Ortofon Red.  It was ok, but not great.

Things to do -

1.  replace the original mat with a rubber mat.  I use the ones from the Technics 1200 series available from KAB USA
2.  change out the stylus to the one from the Ortofon blue
3.  change cartridges altogether.  The Shelter 201 is excellent. 

The pre-amp from the MF 3.2 is good.  No need to change.

This will make things appreciably better.  

Unfortunately, if you really get into records, you will find yourself upgrading the TT.   

Rich