Will a $700 turntable outperform a CD player?

Buy an SL1200 if you like to hear hum... i was a DJ too and this turntable was the best ti mix, but it’s nowhere near a HiFi one.

I have SL1210mkII since i was 19 and no hum even in the headphones @russhealy

Cardas tonearm rewire kit cost $50 for two turntables, external phono cable cost $150, so the total upgrade cost $200 (if you have soldering skills). Everything else depends on a cartridge, the turntable provide stable rotation. I’ve been using $3000 MC Zyx Airy III on this upgraded turntable - no hum ! Excellent result with Technics 205c mk4 and Technics 100c mk3 cartridges and many more killer MM and MI.

Some people complain only about Grado cartridges, but i have no hum with my Grado on SL1210mkII.

Watching Grado factory tour you will see even older Technics turntable, this is where they can test cartridges.

Today SL1210mkII cost $350 max (used) and at this price there is NOTHING better than this, except for some vintage stuff. In Japan those Technics SL1200 mk3 cost $150 used ! Jelco tonearm was very popular upgrade, if you can buy SL1200 mk3 for $150 and Jelco for $300 then it's a fine machine for the money. 

Reproduced from an audio engineer at Dolby laboratories:

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The state of the art digital audio, at 192kHz/24-bit, is the highest fidelity medium available to the average consumer anyway. That allows the disc itself to deliver a 144dB dynamic range and perfectly sample frequencies up to 96kHz. However, you're highly unlikely to find any analog hardware that'll reproduce that as is. But it's entirely possible to create a work that fully uses that range, as long as you're mixing digitally. You can get 192kHz/24-bit audio in 2-channels on DVD-Audio and in up to eight channels on Blu-ray disc.

Consider for a minute what 144dB of dynamic range actually means, though. If you had a stereo that could faithfully reproduce that, you wouldn't be able to hear very quiet passages unless you had the very loud passages capable of being so loud they could actually do damage to your hearing. So, for example, set the level to exactly match the dB,spl scale (sound pressure level, measured in dB). Your threshold of hearing is 0-20dB,spl depending on frequency, but over 130 db,spl or so, your ears are screaming in pain and might be permanently damaged. So this would cover the entire audible range.

LPs are increasing in popularity these days, but kind of in spite of their specs. An LP can in theory reproduce audio up to about 40kHz, but it has to be half or quarter-speed mastered for that, because otherwise, the cutting lathe would be damaged. And most turntables can't get close to reproducing that range, that's one of the things very expensive audiophile turntables give you. An LP can also only deliver about 60dB dynamic range, about 12-bits worth. Some very good pressings on very high quality vinyl might extend that to 65-70dB, but it's not even close to CD.

144 dB of dynamic range ain’t going to do you much good if the mastering engineers compress the life out of the recording. Garbage in 🔜 garbage out. 🔚 The CD player has inherent problems that prevent the full dynamic range - whatever it is - from being recovered from the disc, anyway. You can’t win.

@geoffkait
That is the WHOLE point. No matter what, music pressed on to the vinyl MUST be compressed down to 70db. It can NOT be written otherwise.
So, 144db is compressed down to 70db in the BEST case.
The bog standard CD gives you 96db dynamic range.

How does that make vinyl better than CD or 192/24 ?

But I was referring to the CD, not vinyl. It’s difficult to compare apples and oranges anyway, there are a great many variables involved with both LP and CD so I won’t make any categorical statements. 😀