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4-500 $ cartridge for Project Debut Carbon ?

I recently gifted a niece a Carbon Debut TT with mounted Ortofon Red in hopes of encouraging interest she has shown lately in Classical Music.
It sounds quite good esp. since she's running it through an old Yamaha A-1000 amp with an excellent phono stage(2 actually).Suppose the Caras phono IC i threw in helped as well.
I put on the old Fritz Reiner Chicago "Scheherazade",
which as many of you know, has a huge dynamic range, I was quite surprised the Project took it all in stride with just a slight hardening of strings on those tremendous crecendos.
As she has 94db eff speakers and the A-1000 is powerful I don't think it was clipping. I'm thinking perhaps a better cartridge might do the trick ? Nagoka MP 300 is first thing that comes to mind,but my mind is old and needs help.
schubert
schubert OP
4,867 posts
 
Thanks one and all for the good advice on what is probaly the worlds best forum for same.

I used my usual way of siteing a TT which is on a a 4" Mapleshade block sitting on Isoblocks with the TT itself on Mapleshade heavyweight brass cones.Perhaps its just a loss of touch in my old fingers, but I must say I feel no vibrations on the headshell at all.Music Hall Cork mat.

My decision is to order a Soundsmith Carmen ($600), truthfully because I was addicted to ADC moving-iron carts back in the days before CD. If no improvement on the debut carbon, I'll just put it on my TT and get her a Ortofon Blue stylus.
zenblaster
504 posts
 
I would like to know the thought process behind putting a $600- cartridge on a $350- turntable. Seems an odd allocation of funds, then again, if money is no object perhaps you feel this is an ideal arrangement?

Do you know something the rest of us doesn't?
schubert OP
4,867 posts
 
Perhaps, at almost 80 I know you are easier on yourself when you take chances on your hunches.Kind of Zenny .
tejasrichard
3 posts
 
I'm very curious to know, 5 years on, what you thought of this combination. I currently own a pro-ject debut carbon esprit sb, and this is exactly the combo I am considering. For the record, I have been using a dynavector 10x5 for a few years, and it can still surprise me with how good it sounds.
stevecham
3,298 posts
 
Nagaoka MP200. $397 from LP Gear. You will be amazed.
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