I believe(for the most part) in Ivor Tiefebrun's maxim; Basically, if you don't get the information off the source, Lp Cd, etc., you cannot make up for it downstream. In a turntable, it's the turntable first, then the arm, and finally the cartridge/preamplifier. Her, I think that this is a good analogy: like a sports car if the chassis is not really stiff(the turntable), the suspension(tonearm) will not work to its utmost, and the motor(the cartridge) will not be able to apply its power as best that it could. Something like that. So if the table isn't absolutely stable and precise in its ability to spin that record with the least amount of error, the tonearm won't be able to control the fine undulations in the record that the cartridge has to traverse. Again, something like that.
Does a record player make that much of a difference??
Question for all you Audionerds - in your experience, how much of a difference does one record player make over the next compared with the differences that a cartridge, phone pre-amp, and separate head amp make in the signal chain?
Reason I ask: I just upgraded from a MM cart to a MC cart (Dynavector 20x2-low output). Huge difference - the Dynavector sounds much more alive and detailed compared with the MM. I find my current record player (a Marantz TT16) to be a real pain to work with - I have to manually move the belt on the motor hub to change speeds, and the arm is not very adjustable or easy to do so. But, aside from that, it's not terrible. How much of a difference can I really expect if I upgrade to a better record spinner vs the change I heard from upgrading to a better cart?
My next acquisition is a separate head amp to feed the phono stage.
Thanks for all your insights!
Josh