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Time to upgrade my turntable?

I'm thinking about getting a new turntable to replace my 4 year old Pro-ject Debut Carbon with an acrylic platter and 2M Blue cartridge (with about 600 hours on it). My budget right now is about $1000 but would consider spending a bit more for right turntable. Currently my system consists of a Sansui B-2101 2 amp (200 wpc) powering ADS L1290 speakers (the speakers will be upgraded shortly to ADS L1590's when I find and replace a couple drivers). I am using a Yamaha DSP A1 as the preamp (I like the DSP sound fields that imitate jazz clubs and concert halls). I do have the matching Sansui C-2101 preamp but it is not currently in line.  I also use a DBX 3BX DS impact restorer and expander/compressor. 

I listen to classical music and jazz.

What would you suggest? I might prefer to stay within the Pro-ject line as I could reuse the acrylic platter (if one is not provided with the recommended turntable). Perhaps the debut pro or X1?
cspiegs

Showing 2 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
7,543 posts
 
High end / high fidelity sound is about taking extreme care of the signal start to finish. The straight wire paradigm is used throughout the industry to achieve this. Avoid playing with the signal or making the path longer. If you want to improve the sound of your system then I would concentrate on removing any electronics that does DSP or has tone controls. I would switch back to your Sansui preamp and if that is not a great improvement then invest a couple grand in a used high end preamp. This should significantly improve your system far beyond what a turn table change will do. The preamp is the heart of any good system and is worth investing in. The results will then reflect your other components.

I highly recommend Robert Harley’s book: The Complete Guide to High End Audio to orient you to this wonderful pursuit.
ghdprentice
7,543 posts
 
You have a pretty good turntable considering the rest of your system.


My rule of thumb is always upgrade 2x or 3x the cost to get a significant improvement. Particularly the lower the initial cost. I would save up to make a bigger jump. This should put your TT in a level above the reat if your equipment. It will give you a noticeable improvement. Then save up to get a better preamp or speakers… this way you can raise the performance stepwise getting an incremental improvement each component, and long term upgrade the whole system to a new level.


This is the way most of us with really good systems got there. Sideways moves are disappointing and demotivating.
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