Is it worth upgrading my current turntable setup?


Hello all here is my current system

Pioneer PLX-1000 turntable w/ Ortofon 2M Black cartridge

Tokyo Sound PE 100SE phono stage

Aric Audio Unlimited tube preamp

Odyssey Audio Khartago SE amplifier

Divine Acoustics Proxima 3 speakers

Do you think the turntable is holding back the rest of the system? Thanks for any advice! 

blue_collar_audio_guy

My usual advice I’m afraid, it will be encouraging an encounter to take place of equipment that has raised an interest and might be seen as a wanted addition to your system.

Select a few of your favourite LP’s and set aside a little time for their cleaning, when done listen to these in their new as close to pristine condition as can be achieved, and assess the impression being made on the home system.

Make a few contacts to see if visits can be arranged to those in possession of devices you have shortlisted and make inroads to see if you able to be offered demonstrations of items.

Take along your newly cleaned LP’s and if there is something new to pick up on and a good impression is being made, usually the improvement on offer will be noticed instantaneously.

The ears are the very best tool for such investigations.

This method of gathering experiences does not require too much of an outlay either.

@blue_collar_audio_guy

Simple really….

You have a very good cartridge (not overkill by the way) on a solid turntable. May be the table isn’t as good as some other higher end belt drive models but even with the amplification chain you have listed you are unlikely to realize full potential of your analog set up. So bottleneck in my opinion isn’t your analog front end.

 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-4-page-2

@blue_collar_audio_guy

Is it worth upgrading my current turntable setup?

Elliot as much as I love vinyl I like to keep it simple. I won’t have a need for changing arms or cartridges. Something I could simply mount the 2M black to and forget would be ideal. Appreciate the suggestions.

YES!!

I agree with the idea of upgrading the turntable & arm BEFORE the cartridge. However you may get curious enough to try another cartridge afterwards. Then there is the phono preamp which I am not familiar. Price wise, it matches your TT which is good and maybe good for the near future. It depends upon which TT / arm combo you get. IE, I had a very good sounding Phono pre (Wright 100P) which served me until I moved up the line to where it just wasn’t matching the quality of the rest of the system

 

A more solid plinth and platter will yield more solid bass and all fundamentals of any frequency will be more firmly begun, then overtones, time decay all synergistically work together in an improved way.