Many years ago I discovered an enduring truth about turntables: it's all about the stylus, the cartridge and the arm. Get those three components right and you can get a great result even if all the other bits that make up the turntable are only average. It appears a new generation of turntable enthusiasts are rediscovering this truth.
Pro-Ject's Debut turntables are solid, sharply priced little workers that enjoy a seriously good performance-for-dollars ratio. Indeed, the Debut has become the highest selling turntable in the country among serious listeners, beloved of both first-timers getting into vinyl and old-timers getting back into vinyl. It's not a great performer, but it's honest. Its strength is that it ticks the important boxes: excellent isolation of the motor, native speed regulation circuitry and a low-mass tonearm.
Tonearms have come a long way in the past few decades, and generally their effective mass is down significantly, meaning easier and faster movement for improved responsiveness. Low mass tonearms are a major reason mid-price turntables now outperform many high-priced turntables of the pre-CD era.
The Debut Carbon, mid-range in the Debut offering, has always been supplied with an Ortofon OM10 cartridge, but a funny thing has been happening over the last few years: lots of buyers have been ordering a cartridge upgrade to Ortofon's 2M Red.
"We have a number of dealers who know about cartridges, and they have been making their customers aware of just how much the more expensive cartridge improves the sound," product manager Leigh Fischer said. "You don't have to be an audiophile to hear the difference, the 2M Red is more responsive for better clarity and definition, and improves transparency. It also has a higher 5.5 millivolt output over the OM10's four millivolts, meaning it's louder. So the difference in volume levels between the turntable and other inputs – CD player, streamer, whatever – are less pronounced."
But the upgrade is time consuming. Changing cartridges is a finicky business that's easy to get wrong. Even the most devoted audiophiles prefer cleaning the drains. But the upgrade appears to be where the mid-level market is heading, so after badgering the factory Leigh has now introduced a model to the Debut series with the 2M Red cartridge factory fitted in place of the OM10. The $80 price increase over the Debut Carbon with the OM10 reflects the extra cost of the 2M Red, which retails at $169.
Thus the Debut Carbon with the OM10 cartridge, still giving a highly acceptable result for a first timer, is $549, while the 2M Red model is $629. Both of these are moving magnet cartridges with an elliptical stylus, meaning a greater contact area with the walls of the record groove, but the 2M Red differs in having a split pole assembly that has less magnetic memory. This means that as the magnet moves inside the coils it's less inclined to try to return to where it was, making it faster and cleaner.
If you want to step beyond the 2M Red cartridge, the logical choice is Ortofon's "nude" stylus option, where rather than being diamond tipped, the stylus is composed of a whole, single diamond, shaped for optimal contact with the groove walls. It reduces surface noise significantly and the sound quality improvement is certainly audible, even to first-timers. It's called the 2M Blue and is priced at $249.
The Debut series is popular among the cognoscenti because it's minimalist; their money is going into sound quality rather than gadgetry. Models are available in eight colours; piano black, red, white, blue, green, silver, yellow and purple.
Importer Sam Encel says Australia is one of the world's top five markets for turntables and he thinks this is only going to get better as we learn more and become more discerning about sound quality. "When music lovers have a truly satisfying turntable experience they become vinyl enthusiasts for life," he says.
Pro-Ject has a couple of interesting new offerings coming along this year, including a vertical turntable that's freestanding or wall-mountable, and a retro model to mark the company's 25th anniversary.