many variables and not enough info. how big of a room do you have? room treatment? speakers/listening chair using the 1/3 ratio for positioning?
if the room and system is setup, i'm assuming you asking what is your weak link because you want to replace the equipment, if this is correct, how much do you want to spend?
IMO, sorry to say, but both your analog and digital equipment are your weakest links. For digital, ALL cd players under few thousands of $$$ sound terrible unless they are specifically built with a very good quality dac, even the oppo is compromised compared to a decent cd player/music server/mac mini with a nice external dac. I used to own a really nice wyred 4 sound dac2 dsd dac which was < $2000, but when I spent 3x that for my new dac, performance increased accordingly. I would suggest at 1st using your cd player and buy a very good dac with the best digital cable you can afford.
I don't agree with previous comments about analog sounding compressed, just the opposite if you get a nice analog setup. But there is a price you have to spend to get great sound from analog, its not cheap. I spent almost 3x more for my analog setup than my digital setup and when the vinyl album is mastered well, it sounds better than straight redbook digital. DSD/MQA sound as good as good analog but it costs more to get this capability from your digital setup. This would entail getting a music server or pc/mac server setup to stream MQA or read DSD ripped music.
IMO, you will need to spend many times the cost of your digital setup to get equivalent sound quality from analog. A $300 cartridge, $100 tonearm isn't going to cut it. You will need to replace all of your analog not just 1 piece. If you replace just the tt, what about the arm? cartridge? you can put a $300 cartridge on a $50,000 turntable and it will still sound like a $300 analog setup. If you start with the cartridge, you are limited with the tonearm you are using, so you won't be able to get a GOOD cartridge. you could spend the $$$ and get a good tonearm and cartridge and use your existing tt base/platter, but you are limited what type of arm will fit your tt. If on a tight budget, look at the vpi scout or vpi prime. You can get a nice ortofon/soundsmith/grado cartridge that you can afford and still have room to upgrade the cartridge at a later time, these turntable packages are that good. I just upgraded to the VPI 3d arm for almost $3000 and it was a large improvement over the vpi metal arm i was using prior, so every little piece can make a big difference.
You can get a used external dac with dsd/mqa and even with a music server capabilities built in used for a couple thousand $$$.
Same goes for a used VPI setup. The grado sonata cartridge is a nice entry level piece for around $500-$600, or a soundsmith zephyr or carmen cartridge for the $$$ are excellent.
Good luck.
if the room and system is setup, i'm assuming you asking what is your weak link because you want to replace the equipment, if this is correct, how much do you want to spend?
IMO, sorry to say, but both your analog and digital equipment are your weakest links. For digital, ALL cd players under few thousands of $$$ sound terrible unless they are specifically built with a very good quality dac, even the oppo is compromised compared to a decent cd player/music server/mac mini with a nice external dac. I used to own a really nice wyred 4 sound dac2 dsd dac which was < $2000, but when I spent 3x that for my new dac, performance increased accordingly. I would suggest at 1st using your cd player and buy a very good dac with the best digital cable you can afford.
I don't agree with previous comments about analog sounding compressed, just the opposite if you get a nice analog setup. But there is a price you have to spend to get great sound from analog, its not cheap. I spent almost 3x more for my analog setup than my digital setup and when the vinyl album is mastered well, it sounds better than straight redbook digital. DSD/MQA sound as good as good analog but it costs more to get this capability from your digital setup. This would entail getting a music server or pc/mac server setup to stream MQA or read DSD ripped music.
IMO, you will need to spend many times the cost of your digital setup to get equivalent sound quality from analog. A $300 cartridge, $100 tonearm isn't going to cut it. You will need to replace all of your analog not just 1 piece. If you replace just the tt, what about the arm? cartridge? you can put a $300 cartridge on a $50,000 turntable and it will still sound like a $300 analog setup. If you start with the cartridge, you are limited with the tonearm you are using, so you won't be able to get a GOOD cartridge. you could spend the $$$ and get a good tonearm and cartridge and use your existing tt base/platter, but you are limited what type of arm will fit your tt. If on a tight budget, look at the vpi scout or vpi prime. You can get a nice ortofon/soundsmith/grado cartridge that you can afford and still have room to upgrade the cartridge at a later time, these turntable packages are that good. I just upgraded to the VPI 3d arm for almost $3000 and it was a large improvement over the vpi metal arm i was using prior, so every little piece can make a big difference.
You can get a used external dac with dsd/mqa and even with a music server capabilities built in used for a couple thousand $$$.
Same goes for a used VPI setup. The grado sonata cartridge is a nice entry level piece for around $500-$600, or a soundsmith zephyr or carmen cartridge for the $$$ are excellent.
Good luck.