Project Debut II problems

[JaS]

No wonder you aren't happy

It sounds like either the record or stylus is completely trashed (way beyond normal wear), your dragging a huge fur ball on the end of the stylus or the phono stage is being overwhelmed by the output of the cartridge? If its alignment or tracking force then its a hell of a long way out. The only positive thing I can say is that no, this isn't normal for the deck! Even the cheapest, most tacky turntable should sound better than that.

You say you've tried different preamps so the problem should be with the turntable or your records. If your friends turntable has a standard 1/2" mount cartridge I'd see if you could borrow it to compare against yours before shelling out for another. I'd also take another look at the way you are setting the tracking weight as way too little or way too much VTF will have a similar effect as the stylus desperately tries to follow the groove. Finally going back to your original post you say 'the arm has lots of horizontal movement'. If you mean by this that the horizontal bearing has play then this could be the problem (although the salesman who checked the deck should have spotted this!).

Regards,
JaS

[misterlizzard]

No wonder you aren't happy

It sounds like either the record or stylus is completely trashed (way beyond normal wear), your dragging a huge fur ball on the end of the stylus or the phono stage is being overwhelmed by the output of the cartridge? If its alignment or tracking force then its a hell of a long way out. The only positive thing I can say is that no, this isn't normal for the deck! Even the cheapest, most tacky turntable should sound better than that.
JaS

Well, when it was taken to the third HI-FI shop id been in with it, I had it setup for £15 and it was demo'd on a £10,000 speaker/amp combo and sounded the same. I was told i need a new cartridge cause the connectors have probably got damp and corroded.

You say you've tried different preamps so the problem should be with the turntable or your records. If your friends turntable has a standard 1/2" mount cartridge I'd see if you could borrow it to compare against yours before shelling out for another. I'd also take another look at the way you are setting the tracking weight as way too little or way too much VTF will have a similar effect as the stylus desperately tries to follow the groove. Finally going back to your original post you say 'the arm has lots of horizontal movement'. If you mean by this that the horizontal bearing has play then this could be the problem (although the salesman who checked the deck should have spotted this!).
JaS

Just tried the 15+years old technics hi-fi turntable I thought i'd upgraded from with a very loose needle and that sounds about 150% better than the debut although still slightly tinny.

One thing I forgot to mention with the debut, the sound quality is noticibly alot better on 45's than 33's is this meaning that it is a bearing problem? I figured that being as the song would be less condensed than a 33 on the record it would sound better ... maybe thats wrong.

[StylinLP]

What a bummer. Something is definately wrong. This is the one good reason that vinyl is not for everyone. Its a hobby and not a plug n play device. Tables and tonearms have alot of adjustments and its really hard to set them right without tools to do it with. Then you can have a better idea if something is wrong mechanically. When someone buys a new table we cross our fingers and hope that there is nothing wrong with it. If there is thats what warranties are for. Same idea when you buy computer parts.

Thats strange that dealer that charged you money couldn't narrow down what was wrong. Sounds to me he is guessing.
Personally, I think something is wrong with one of the bearings or the tonearm cable.
BTW-the more money you spend on Tables, tonearms, cartirdges the better it sounds. You bought the bottom model of tables and its suppose to perform well for the money. But its definately lacking in key areas of sound which you can read about in any review. If you had a HFRR test record it would not be able to pass some of those torture tests. Even setup perfectly. But you still can enjoy what vinyl is all about with that deck.

Another thing. Just as important. The way you clean your vinyl and the condition it is truely in is 50% of the sound. Also how you mount the table