Help.... I'm scared to 'upgrade'!

Some good points, for sure. I certainly didn't intend to bash the Parasound JC3+. In his August 2014 review of the Parasound, Neil Gader states, "Backgrounds are still eerily quiet" when comparing it to the original JC3. I guess I interpreted that to mean actually very, even eerily, quiet. That simply wasn't the case. It really sounded fantastic but compared to the self generated noise (or the absence of) of my DAC, it was much more pronounced. I'm sure I was naive, it was my first (relatively, of course) expensive phono preamp and I didn't realize that "black backround", "eerily quiet", "silent", etc. implies that those mean ....for a phonostage. An issue for me might be the fact that at times I just can't resist listening to music loudly through my very enthusiastic ATC's which would bring that noise well into audibility. I have a ton of experience listening to noise of all sorts through my sensitive amateur radio gear and the causes and remedies of all sorts of RFI, tube rush, ground loops, etc., was part of the knowledge base required in testing for my Extra Class ticket. So I'm fairly certain that the hiss present in my system was in fact generated by the JC3+. No, it wasn't terrible. I bought it smartly used and resold it to one who reported no issues at all. I always offer to buy back anything I sell for any reason within a period of time. The Rega Aria, on the other hand, was much worse. I bought it from a local dealer, from an actual shop. The dealer  concurred that it wasn't exactly possessing inky black backrounds. 

    More generally, I have no apologies for allocating whatever funds I want in pursuit of great sound. And I really like the gear, that's why I love radio too. And that's why occasionally post here on Audiogon. This is a community for all types of music lovers and stereo lovers. @sgreg1 So please don't be too concerned with my financial priorities. 

@aberyclark I'm wondering if I give too much subjective weight to that single variable which is a component's S/N ratio. I sat down to listen to a few LP's while writing here and am still astounded at just how squeaky clean the little Zen Phono is. The Umami Red is new to my system (I lucked out on a used one which still looked new under a microscope), and if I had a JC3+ here on hand to compare my opinion could change, for sure. 

@oranfoster 

Please understand that I am not trying to be critical of your finances or do I care. I was trying to make a point that people who love music can and should enjoy it anyway they can. By any way I mean anyway and while we can offer our opinions they are only opinions and their can be a fine line between critiquing and being critical. 

For what it’s worth, I think I’ve read other comments to the effect that the JC3+ can be a tad hissy, john curl design credentials  notwithstanding. This is not an issue inherent to vinyl reproduction.

My  advice is if you like it - stick with it and skip the upgrade. I recently made a mistake purchasing a very expensive car and have found I like my 14yo car with 200k miles on it much better. So much so that I am selling the new car back to the dealer and willing to take a loss to do so. 

Moral of the story is shiny new toys are not always what they may seem to be. I had to learn this lesson the hard and expensive way. 

I don’t know, but Michael Fremer gushed over the relatively affordable Graham Slee Era Gold V....I own it and think it’s nice. For holographic, I think you are going to need a tubed phono stage. I love my Tavish classic with NOS tubes installed. I use mine with both a Jensen and a Rothwell step up transformer when running a moving coil. Yeah, maybe not the quietest thing out there, but who cares. Most vinyl, especially vintage original pressings, are not all that quiet when compared to newer reissues, but boy do they sound better...I'd have to agree with Tom Port’s take on vintage vinyl compared to new pressings, no comparison. Both the pro-ject tube box ds2 and the Ear 834p are very nice as well, both tubed. I own all the above. I’d have to agree that just throwing a lot of money at something does not always result in a better sound. Some of the components I mentioned above are incredible values for your money spent.