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?
128x128cspiegs
Not familiar with your preamp, but for $1K I’d keep your current table and either spend a little to upgrade your cartridge or look into a dedicated phono preamp. Not sure spending what your budget is on a new deck is really going to improve things. A cartridge or phono preamp likely will though.
Your turntable and cartridge are excellent and a good match to the rest of your system, I don't think you will have any benefit upgrading the turntable, unless you have certain technical issues that affect the sound quality.  1K budget for a turntable will not give you any significant sound upgrade.
I'd also recommend keeping the TT & cartridge but getting a new phono section, maybe the Gold Note PH10 which is very flexible so when you change cartridges down the road it should allow for that. Just my 2 cents worth
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.