Keep the sub. Add more if you want but never sell a sub. Just add more.
Upgrade the table if you want. But try and understand, by far the best thing you can do right now is ditch anything multi-channel in favor of stereo. If you can get an integrated so much the better. The improvement will be so great I can just about guarantee you will not even have to spend one dime. Just sell surrounds and A/V, anything and everything that its your hands (amps with cards!) and put whatever that is into a good integrated. You will probably have money left over for a good phono stage.
You will find this simpler and more flexible approach carries big dividends. Things like power cords and interconnects make a huge difference. With the right choices you only need a lot less of them, and so can afford much better quality.
Believe me, you will not miss surround, not when you hear really good stereo, not for one second. Well maybe one second. But that's about it. Buy a couple more subs with the savings, the sound field will be as immersive as any surround, and that will be the end of that.
Surface noise is largely a function of moving mass in the cartridge. The tiniest stylus motion sets up resonances, the mass at the generator end reflects it back down the cantilever to the stylus, which being light has no way of dissipating and starts bouncing around. This is the reason why you will find review after review saying expensive high end carts seem to have much less surface noise. Its not magic, its mass. Expensive MC have very low mass.
The lowest mass of all by far are the moving iron designs used by Soundsmith. You want good sound and hate noise you want MI not MC or MM.
Upgrade the table if you want. But try and understand, by far the best thing you can do right now is ditch anything multi-channel in favor of stereo. If you can get an integrated so much the better. The improvement will be so great I can just about guarantee you will not even have to spend one dime. Just sell surrounds and A/V, anything and everything that its your hands (amps with cards!) and put whatever that is into a good integrated. You will probably have money left over for a good phono stage.
You will find this simpler and more flexible approach carries big dividends. Things like power cords and interconnects make a huge difference. With the right choices you only need a lot less of them, and so can afford much better quality.
Believe me, you will not miss surround, not when you hear really good stereo, not for one second. Well maybe one second. But that's about it. Buy a couple more subs with the savings, the sound field will be as immersive as any surround, and that will be the end of that.
Surface noise is largely a function of moving mass in the cartridge. The tiniest stylus motion sets up resonances, the mass at the generator end reflects it back down the cantilever to the stylus, which being light has no way of dissipating and starts bouncing around. This is the reason why you will find review after review saying expensive high end carts seem to have much less surface noise. Its not magic, its mass. Expensive MC have very low mass.
The lowest mass of all by far are the moving iron designs used by Soundsmith. You want good sound and hate noise you want MI not MC or MM.