Upgrade from TW Acustic Raven AC-3 to what?

Hi Jfrech, good as the AC-3 may be, there must be room for improvement, otherwise TW wouldnt have come up with the Black Knight, which I haven't heard :). i will be interested to hear from people who have compared AC-3 and the Black Knight.
Hi Acoustat6, I haven't heard a "modern" DD turntable. Not sure about Lenco or Technics.
Hi Stew3859, in my 2 years with the TT, I have done plenty of tweaking with it. Besides the usual tracking force, VTA, loading, also tried different platforms, phono stage, cables, etc. Regardless of tweaks, the AC-3 is not neutral or utterly transparent. While it is voluptous, beautiful and ripe, it is dark sounding, which kind of reminds me of the Sonus faber Stradivari speakers. I wish it could image better too.

Alectiong,

I would heed Stew3859's advice and suggest making sure that your system is optimally set up. Not just the analog front end, but everything (i.e. check connections, wire placement, room acoustics, etc.). Perhaps it is not the analog front end but another set up factor contributing to your dissatisfaction.

Even without listing the other components in your system, I am sure you have invested a considerable sum of money and effort and it would be a shame to commit more resources if what you have is not optimized. To that end, I would consider having someone adept at set up assist you, as much to bring a fresh perspective and validate what you are hearing. My hunch is that whomever sold you the analog front end would be willing to help. This would certainly be cheaper than buying and selling more equipment (and allow you to purchase more LPs).

However, if you still wish to explore other systems, I can enthusiastically recommend the Galibier Stelvio with the soon to be released TALEA tonearm (http://joelfdurand.com/Tonearm_project/index.html). Feel free to PM if interested.

Good luck and please let everyone know your outcome.

Regards

Well, unfortunately it is not the way to success (whatever this will be) to think, that a design has to be better when it is more expensive. Probably you should look for a better design instead of a more expensive one.

I guess you can try Clearaudio. To some Clearaudio tables sound analytical to them. To me, it is very spacious and focused, but be careful matching it with the right equipment. In my opinion, Clearaudio stuff is usually very detailed, spacious and open sounding. Again, some say it is analtyical.

Go for a Micro Seiki SX 8000 or SX 8000 II. You will start wondering what kind of worlds do exist.