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Time to upgrade my turntable?

I'm thinking about getting a new turntable to replace my 4 year old Pro-ject Debut Carbon with an acrylic platter and 2M Blue cartridge (with about 600 hours on it). My budget right now is about $1000 but would consider spending a bit more for right turntable. Currently my system consists of a Sansui B-2101 2 amp (200 wpc) powering ADS L1290 speakers (the speakers will be upgraded shortly to ADS L1590's when I find and replace a couple drivers). I am using a Yamaha DSP A1 as the preamp (I like the DSP sound fields that imitate jazz clubs and concert halls). I do have the matching Sansui C-2101 preamp but it is not currently in line.  I also use a DBX 3BX DS impact restorer and expander/compressor. 

I listen to classical music and jazz.

What would you suggest? I might prefer to stay within the Pro-ject line as I could reuse the acrylic platter (if one is not provided with the recommended turntable). Perhaps the debut pro or X1?
128x128cspiegs
adg101
1,062 posts
 
Not familiar with your preamp, but for $1K I’d keep your current table and either spend a little to upgrade your cartridge or look into a dedicated phono preamp. Not sure spending what your budget is on a new deck is really going to improve things. A cartridge or phono preamp likely will though.
nabil98
16 posts
 
Your turntable and cartridge are excellent and a good match to the rest of your system, I don't think you will have any benefit upgrading the turntable, unless you have certain technical issues that affect the sound quality.  1K budget for a turntable will not give you any significant sound upgrade.
rsf507
2,313 posts
 
I'd also recommend keeping the TT & cartridge but getting a new phono section, maybe the Gold Note PH10 which is very flexible so when you change cartridges down the road it should allow for that. Just my 2 cents worth
ghdprentice
6,961 posts
 
You have a pretty good turntable considering the rest of your system.


My rule of thumb is always upgrade 2x or 3x the cost to get a significant improvement. Particularly the lower the initial cost. I would save up to make a bigger jump. This should put your TT in a level above the reat if your equipment. It will give you a noticeable improvement. Then save up to get a better preamp or speakers… this way you can raise the performance stepwise getting an incremental improvement each component, and long term upgrade the whole system to a new level.


This is the way most of us with really good systems got there. Sideways moves are disappointing and demotivating.
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