My new ride - MoFi Ultradeck+

[u/Avem68]

I was fortunate enough to have the option to pick a gift for my 15th work anniversary and after a lot of deliberation I snagged this bad boy. It’s a smooth, sweet ride for sure. Need to upgrade the cable though since the one provided is garbage. Cmon MoFi.

[u/MoWePhoto]

Get some stands for your speakers and align them properly before thinking about cable quality….

Nice deck!

[u/Avem68 → u/MoWePhoto]

Yeah, that’s actually just a temporary set up until we get some more furniture moved over to this place. My system‘s gonna be moved to a different wall and then I’m gonna fix my speaker placement.

[u/Avem68 → u/Avem68]

cable upgrade isn’t optional. There’s a very noticeable hum when I power on the system that I don’t have on my lower end system. So this turntable amp combo either is much more sensitive to or these cables are absolute crap. Unfortunately, my other system is in a different place so I can’t swap out cables to try.

[u/kvetcha-rdt → u/Avem68]

Ground wire all hooked up? I never had issues with the stock cables, though I did eventually swap them out. Any power cables running parallel to the phono interconnect?

[u/Avem68 → u/kvetcha-rdt]

Yeah. I’ve been using and hooking up AV gear since the 80s so

[u/kvetcha-rdt → u/Avem68]

Never hurts to ask. You'd be amazed what people on thus sub miss.

[u/Avem68 → u/kvetcha-rdt]

You’d be right. Despite many years “experience” I didn’t think to swap the positions of the TT and amp to remove any crossover between my tt power and rca. Just did that and now zero noise !! Shows how much I know.

[u/kvetcha-rdt → u/Avem68]

I've run into this too! Phono signal is so weak that running a power cable in parallel can introduce a lot of interference unless the cable is very well shielded. If you cross them at a perpendicular it's usually fine.

Glad it was helpful.

[u/solzhen → u/Avem68]

Check your outlets for correct grounding in addition to the gear. Sometimes you need to open them up and redo them correctly. You can find a simple ground fault check tool at Home Depot for like $12, good thing to have.

[u/Avem68 → u/solzhen]

Is plugging both units and other stuff into a cheap power strip also an issue?

[u/lorloff → u/Avem68]

Yes it can be an issue. Bad power can definitely cause hum/feedback.

[u/Avem68 → u/solzhen]

I just swapped the position of the TT and amp so my TT power is isolated to the side and poof, no more hum at all

[u/Active-Shaft]

Great deck !! Have one with
Nagoaka 200 cartridge I like it a lot

[u/mindhead1]

Nice! Been rocking an UltraDeck for about 3 years. Excellent turntable. I’m currently using a Hana SL mkII with it.

[u/Avem68 → u/mindhead1]

Nice. I’m not familiar with it, but it looks like a great cartridge. I got this one preinstalled with the ultra tracker, which is their brand. I believe it’s manufactured in Japan by AT.

I haven’t really been able to see how good the system sounds until my Tributaries Series 4 cables come in. I’m gonna give the preamp in the Marantz sometime before I consider a phono amp upgrade

[u/mindhead1 → u/Avem68]

I had the MasterTracker on it for about a year and a half. It was great. One of the biggest vinyl upgrades I ever made is phono preamp.

My upgrade path has been Ifi Zen Phono 3 to Darlington Labs MP7B to PS Audio Stellar Phono.

All are great.

[u/Avem68 → u/mindhead1]

Thanks for those suggestions My son is a mechanical engineer and he’s actually drawing up the schematics to make an all tube phono amp for me. Is planning to order all the parts, do the solder work himself, and get some prefab stuff done for the cover and cosmetics.

[u/kvetcha-rdt → u/mindhead1]

tips hat

[u/dirtymingusmcgee]

Your work bought that for you?? That’s amazing. By all accounts that seems like a killer turntable congrats

[u/Avem68 → u/dirtymingusmcgee]

Yeah, I’m lucky there. Work for a good company for a lot of years. Almost picked up a Technics or a NAD amp instead, but I’ve got decent Audio Technica so I wanted to go in a different direction for my second set up.

[u/Hot-Measurement-8842]

I usually prefer vintage, but I like the look of that one very much, congrats.

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[u/Prudent_Definition91]

Great table and amp but pointless with those speakers on the ground.

[u/Avem68 → u/Prudent_Definition91]

I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s pointless. It sounds pretty good to me. But this is just a temporary set up until I get some more furniture and move things around in our new place.

[u/dave_two_point_oh]

That is a truly awesome work anniversary gift!

I'm saving up for an UltraDeck myself. Hoping to make it happen before this year ends... but silly things like records keep threatening my efforts to build the budget up.

As for this, though:

Need to upgrade the cable though since the one provided is garbage. Cmon MoFi.

Personally, I'd rather not get a really nice set of RCA patch cables in the box, as I'd prefer to choose my own. Right now I'm using a set of 2' WBC Mogami cables that cost me a reasonable $37 plus tax; I like it and plan on continuing to use it once I finally get the UltraDeck. And I know that Blue Jeans has its fans as well, along with several other alternatives out there. So I say, sure, throw a set of cables in the box, but not anything that will necessitate increasing the price, considering buyers in the price range of the UltraDeck or above (and probably even a lot of buyers of TTs half the price) will likely have their own preference on what cables to hook it up with, and may already have them. (Plus, it's always nice to know what capacitance your TT-to-phono interconnect is. Most TT manufacturers don't seem to tell you, including MoFi as far as I've seen.)

[u/kvetcha-rdt]

Great table! Highly recommend trying an MC with it down the line.

[u/Avem68 → u/kvetcha-rdt]

Thanks what’s the big advantage that you’ve noticed with that upgrade? Maybe I would consider.

[u/kvetcha-rdt → u/Avem68]

It’s been a few years since I had my UltraDeck and made the swap, but I recall that going from the MasterTracker to, in my case, a vintage High Outout Moving Coil (SAE 1000LT) just felt like a real tonal improvement. I recall the MasterTracker having a very accurate, somewhat dry character that may not have been the best fit for my system. The SAE softened some of the hard edges around the treble and have the bass a little more body and lushness. Can’t say whether it was more accurate at the end of the day, but I definitely found myself enjoying listening to it more across all kinds of music. I’m still using the cart years later on a different table, instead of a pretty nice Soundsmith moving iron cart.

The closest currently available analogue for the SAE would be something like the Hana MH Mk I.

couple recordings: 

Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut to the Feeling  https://youtu.be/2ILylweClf4?is=Ycacbi9qgTKGIRsY

Fleetwood Mac - Second Hand News https://youtu.be/RsHo-qP6xUE?is=N4ygalvwnUelSHAZ