As @pindac says:
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.
+1
If it is good now, then you really don’t want to be risking wasting funds on something that is the same, or lower, performance.