I get it now

@varchard.The analog side of audio is a wonderful world of increasing rewards. I have a really good system, my digital end sounds really great and costs $10K more than my analog end. I had a friend visiting to listen to my system. He is assembling his first high end system, just before he left asked to listen to a vinyl record. I played one and he sat up and the superlatives started flying out of his mouth. His excitement level doubled. He said, “now I get it!”. He had heard my earlier VPI tt to... I had upgraded to a Linn and Koetsu cartridge.

I'm a Mac guy, aren't they grand. I almost named a child Mac. Just kidding. His REAL name is Marantz Infinity JBL Josiah McToosh III.

I have a C2500 I love it..  NOW buy two great Tellies or RCA for the main tubes leave the rest.. Change those two.. AND really enjoy your 2500.
100.00 tube (valve) investment is a real eye opener..

I run a C20 in bypass sometimes.. A/B the old with the new.. Nothing alike at  ALL. I run small planars and ribbons.. The DAC.. little quirky though.. There are better DACs but the actual 2500.. Wonderful..

Enjoy ..

@oldhvymec - I haven't even tried the DAC yet.  That's my plan for today.  I needed to read up on how to reassign the digital input to a particular source.  I have a budget streamer (Cambridge CXN V2) and even using that as the dac and sending the analog signal through the 2500 was mind blowing.  My turntable sounded much improved but it's a super budget model and not much is going to improve it's sound.  

Welcome to your new and costly neurosis. 👍😄👍
At least this is one you can really enjoy.

All the best,
Nonoise

take it slow, let it develop, don’t rush into a new TT until you really get a handle on what you are dealing with.

Let some errors or problems in the presentation happen, with regard to your ’getting it’. To hear some bad stuff that could be improved, first. To allow it to step into your notice.

separate the good from the bad. ie, learn nuance in the new found good stuff. cleave carefully.

THEN go out a get a turntable as then you will know what good and bad are and that it can be separated out in the gear the new turntable will be connected to.

single cause analysis, otherwise it becomes a jumbled mess.. that when you finally start to hear bad things again (learning to parse nuance), and the joy dampens a bit and you learn more..well...

...,you won’t be able to get a grip on where it is coming from and what has to stay, and what has to go. you’ll be trying to change things but be a bit rudderless as to the causal analysis.

akin to eating lots of different foods and then not knowing what goodie was the one that caused all the tummy trouble.

so, don’t rush it, is my advice...