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Thoughts About Turntable Upgrades

I hope everyone is having a good Saturday. I'm sitting here listening to CDs because at the moment my digital playback is simply better than my turntable. The Audio Mirror Tubadour DAC that I purchased a few months ago is simply outstanding when paired with my old Cary 308. This leads to my questions/musings about turntable upgrades. 

I got back into vinyl a few years ago and purchased the Rega P3 with a Pro-Ject Tube Box DS2 preamp as a starter kit. I upgraded the cart to a Denon 301 II, which was big improvement for me. Looking forward, I'm leaning heavily towards a Sota Sapphire. I want a US made table only because I'm interested in having a US based system. The Sota seems like a good fit because I value sound that is more laid-back and I'm looking for a table that will emphasize warmth, soundstage, presence, solidity. That's the best I can offer in verbally describing my goal. I'm frankly looking for something that will top the Tubadour experience! The Rega is good, but after a few albums my ears are a bit exhausted.

Here are my questions:

Do y'all have any thoughts on my leaning towards Sota? Any other recommendations? Is there any reason to start with a new preamp rather than a new turntable? If so, what are your recommendations? 

I'm interested in your responses to these questions, but also any other suggestions as well. Let me have it! 

 

rblondeau

Showing 1 response by pinwa

pinwa
238 posts
 

I've spent a lot of time and money over the past 9 months getting into vinyl and comparing it to streaming.  Some quick takeaways from my experience. 

1) A good vinyl system is expensive.  Your DAC is better than your turntable/cartridge/phono stage.  It isn't surprising it sounds better to you.  You need to upgrade your cartridge and phono stage before you will really know if vinyl sounds better.  Even though I own three turntables (Rega P6, VPI Scout, Technics SL 1200GR) I still have no way of evaluating the impact a table makes since I don't own two copies of the same preamp and cartridge to do A/B testing.  So I suggest focusing on the cartridge and phono stage first.

2) Once you have actually optimized your vinyl setup I think you will find that new records are rarely worse than streaming (excluding surface noise) and are mostly noticeably better.  But with well produced new music the differences are usually quite small.   Old records are almost always significantly better than streaming.

3) Whether the expense and hassle of vinyl is worth it is quite subjective.  If you primarily play new music I would suggest not bothering until you have run out of other ways to optimize your system.  

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