Getting a new table what pre-amp to get

Thanks for the all the advice. The V-LPS seems like a perfect solution and maybe get a Sutherland for an upgrade at a later date. I just love the looks and quality of construction of the Clearaudio. My major upgrade coming next year would be speakers over anything but thats for another day.

OK let me give this example. I put a CA Stradivari on my Cosmos IV/SME V it sounds great, I mount the same cart on my Technics 1700 mk 2 it still sounds great just not quite as great. I mount a Digitrac 300 se (medium quality technics) on both tables same difference. The 1700 with the Strad sounds significantly better than the Cosmos with the Digitrac. The 1700 /Strad combo is substantially less costly but sounds better in direct comparison. The better the pre the more you will get out of the cart. That is why I would upgrade the table last. Ive done this comparison with several table, cart, pre combos, always the same outcome.

12-07-11: Audiofeil
>>12-06-11: Rccc
Buy the best table/tonearm you can afford and upgrade the cartridge later....
Buy as much pre as you can afford as well. Its importance equals, perhaps surpasses, the table/tonearm.

I don't have as much turntable rig experience as Audiofeil, but I agree based on my personal experience. After 3 years living with a Cambridge 640A phono stage, I moved up to the Jolida JD-9A. For just $200 more, I'm getting an entirely different level of musical satisfaction--fuller, smoother, warmer, lusher, yet with more clarity and better dynamics.

Three things this unit bring to the table are a big boy's power supply (and a socket for aftermarket power cords), a wide range of gain, resistance, and capacitance settings, and a tube-buffered output stage. Whatever your cartridge is now or in the future, it has a setting to optimize it for the rest of your system.

Go for your Clearaudio TT or similar performance level (as opposed to something under $500), but it'd be a shame to strangle the signal through a single-setting wall-wart phono stage when the JD-9A is available for so little more money, and future proofs your rig for cartridge upgrades.

What about a plug in board for my Creek? Anyone have experience with one?

12-11-11: Billybob7088
What about a plug in board for my Creek? Anyone have experience with one?

Excellent idea. Creek has always been committed to the LP market even when it wasn't fashionable in the mid-'90s. I hadn't noticed you had a Creek integrated in your original post. You'll get the most for your money with the plug-in board because you're only paying for the phono preamp parts, not the power supply or casework. It'll also save you a set of interconnects and you know it'll be an ideal impedance and output match with your amp.

I've heard Creek phono and integrated amp rigs and they sound very nice.