Wait, are you saying you were cutting records on a 78 rpm lathe before this? Because a weight on your turntable and a cutting lathe are two totally different things. A weight just helps the record sit flat and stay stable while it spins, it does not cut anything. If you were actually cutting with a lathe and now you are just playing records with a weight, that is not a fair comparison at all. Maybe you mean you were using the lathe to make your own records and now you are just playing them back differently? Can you explain what you were cutting and what you switched to, because the night and day difference makes sense if these are two different jobs.