Season's Greetings!
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I am looking for turntable recommendations from the Axiom forum gurus. I have been looking at the ProJect line of turntables.
Cheers,
Shaun

I have the Music Hall MMF 7.1 and use a project tube phono pre along with it and i am quite happy with it. It comes with what they call a Mojo cartridge which is just a Ortofon and it is quite nice . 2X6Speeds raved on about it so i got myself one, it was a replacement for a top of the line pioneer TT had from the 80's and what an upgrade it was. Of course there are other great table out there from VPI and one i lust over from Clear Audio. The project tables are very similar to the music hall brand especially the carbon fiber tone arms. Lots of good info at vinylengine.com if your into the vinyl.

I have a Project Carbon (I guess it's the Debut Carbon) from a couple of years ago. Quite happy with it, although I did have to do the "rubber washers in the motor suspension" tweak to get the motor noise down. I think the new ones ("DC") have an improved motor and suspension.

The Ortofon Red cartridge also seems pretty decent, although I haven't been able to find my old Shure cartridges and see how they compare. I did pick up a DL-110 MC cartridge before they got expensive, but part way through installing it occurred to me to check if the platter was magnetic. Clunk... yep. Crap. Might have to get myself an acrylic platter for Christmas.

In theory my old Shure M95ED (and maybe even a V15) is somewhere in the house but I haven't found it yet and am running out of unopened boxes.

I am actually considering the Project Debut Carbon. They appear to priced in the $500 to $600 range which is what I am prepared to pay. Thanks for your input.

I have read good things about Projec TT's i am sure you will be happy with it. I suggest using a good Phono Pre with it to get the most out of your TT.

For me it was a toss-up between the Debut Carbon and the Rega RP1 - there is also a new RP2 in your price range which might be worth a look.

I had initially thought that the Debut Carbon DC replaced the older Debut Carbon (which I have) but AFAICS both models are still being sold, with DC selling for $50 over the base model. There is also the Esprit which comes with the new motor from DC model, plus 33/45 electronic switching and acrylic platter.

More info

AFAICS the Debut Carbon DC is the best bang-for-buck if you don't need the acrylic platter for moving coil cartridges. If you do think you might want to use an MC cartridge later that might be an argument for looking at the Rega units.

There seem to be surprisingly few direct comparisons between Debut Carbon and RP1/2 (just a lot of people who one one but not the other voicing their opinions), however it does seem likely that the two turntables do have somewhat different sounds, with preference leaning a bit towards the Rega units.

The Regas, Pro-Jects, MMF 7+ units are excellent. Last year I moved the Mojo mm cartidge to a used Technics table and went with a Hana low output mc cartridge with shibata stylus. I needed an mc phono stage, so I got a Moon. Did not like it at all. Swapped it for a musical surroundings Phonomena II+ phonostage.

I was loving it! Then the flood happened. My entire downstairs is packed up.

I am just getting myself set up upstairs. I moved my office into the audio room and can finally do some work after about a month of paralysis.

I am enjoying a refurbished, recapped, vintage Harman Kardon TA5000x tube receiver playing through a pair of M22Tis. No sub, no turntable. Cox cable contour II cable box is my source. Loving it! Axiom M22s are exceptionally good speakers!!

Anyway, back to turn tables... When I used the mojo (Ortofon) moving magnet cartridge on my MMF 7.1 table, I also used a Yaqin ms23b tube phonostage. It is an excellent unit!!!

I changed the cartridge briefly on my MMF 7.1 and when i was removing the wires from the Mojo cartridge one of the pins pulled out of the plastic body. This did not make me happy at all, in 35 plus years of TT use this has never happened. I despise plastic, it is a loathsome material. On my previous TT i put a shibata on my shure cartridge and god damn diamond fell off if you can believe that.

I have read and heard very good things about the Hana MC cartridge; I may try it when my stylus in the vintage Audio Technica AT15ss gives up. It's a 1975 vintage super shibata top of the line in it's day MM. I was told by some guys in the know that I should not waste any money on a fancy MC right now as the improvement would be marginal; just wait until the stylus is worn out (it's a NOS original I picked up a few years ago).

My TT is a VPI Ares3 with the superplatter option which I picked up used for a deal. I found a SME Series IV used also for a deal. I custom mounted a set of 4 of the SVS Isofeet from their subwoofers to the Ares3 vs. using the stock aluminum pointed cones which were useless at isolating vibration feed back, the isofeet really work great! No feed back no matter how loud I play the system.

My previous TT was the vintage Marantz 6300 which is a beauty, but it cannot compare to the new set up. I guess I'll have to sell it.