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Abstract The computation of the single-differential top quark-antiquark pair ( t t ¯ $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $$ ) production cross section at NLO in the fixed-order expansion is examined consistently using the MSR and MS ¯ $$ \overline{\textrm{MS}} $$ short-distance top quark mass schemes. A thorough investigation of the dependence of different regions of the t t ¯ $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $$ invariant mass spectrum on the renormalization scales R and μ m of the MSR mass m t MSR $$ {m}_{\textrm{t}}^{\textrm{MSR}} $$ (R) and MS ¯ $$ \overline{\textrm{MS}} $$ mass m ¯ $$ \overline{m} $$ t(μ m ), respectively, is carried out. We demonstrate that a scale choice of R ~ 80 GeV is important for the stability of the cross-section predictions for the low t t ¯ $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $$ invariant mass range, which is important for a reliable extraction of the top quark mass. Furthermore, a choice of semi-dynamical renormalization and factorization scales is preferred. These findings are expected to remain valid once non-relativistic quasi-bound state effects are included in the low invariant mass region.