Buying a new TT today

I was really wanting a PRO-JECT 6 PERSPEX SB. It looks great and I thought the mag suspension sounded pretty awesome. Problem was the salesman really wouldn't sell me one. He said the mag suspension was a joke and a mess and that although they had them in stock he wouldn't sell me one unless I really wanted that TT.  He suggested Rega's and VPI Cliffwood over Pro-Ject for TT's under $2K. Then the VPI Super Prime Scout caught my eye. It was at the top end of my budget but I bit. I have a Sound Smith Otello cart on the VPI, Threshold NS10 Preamp, Parasound HCA 800 Amp, and today just hooked up some Snell J3's (The Cherry on it all). I managed to cobble it all together for well under $6K. Man I love the VPI. I also loooove those Snell J3's. Anyway I am sorry if my enthusiasm for the VPI veered off topic. I just can't get over how great it all sounds.

Check out SOTA.

So here's my quick  story.  Always digital -had a cd or bluray player in my home theater using the dac in a variety of pre/pro's.  I live just outside NYC and while hunkered down in quarantine in April I got the itch to go analog and vinyl and set it up in my living room. 

 Did a bunch of research and bought the Rega 3,  Sutherland KC vibe phono and powered ELAC ARF51 tower speakers which are an all analog design.  Elegant. Simple. All analog. No digital. Started building a vinyl collection. Have about 10 so far.  It sounded so good and better than any CD set up I've ever owned. 

But Loved it TOO much I immediately got upgradist fever and swapped the 3 for the Rega 8, and swapped the vibe for surherlands 20/20 with sep power supply. 

Now I'm going thru it again and looking at a Linear tube audio w40 integrated amp, a rega 10, and salk  SS9.5 speakers.. 

Moral of the story this is a sickness and my advice is to get the best TT you can afford and then slowly build around it. 

Technics 1200GR is also a good deck

AJ-you’re doing so many changes at once, it’s hard to determine what improves the sound.

I’d be interested to hear (if you can break it out individually) if the P10 is worth the 80% increase over the P8.  When I went to the P8 from the P5, I upgraded the arm first and was amazed. When I swapped tables after some deep thought, it sounded a little better, it was subtle,but it has a couple nice features (better designed dust cover, better wiring, better PSU) so I don’t regret it. I don’t think there are any new features on the P10, so make sure it sounds noticeably better. I would bet that whatever the improvement, it would be 80-90% due to the new RB3000 arm.