Turntable Recommendations or ...


Hello,
I joined Audiogon about six months ago and would like to thank all the members who contribute to the Discussion Forum. It has become my go to on audio-related matters replacing Absolute Sound and Stereophile reviews. 
I presently have a Pro-Ject 1-xpression lll TT with a Speed Box 2, Sumiko Blue Point # 2 and Kimber TAK CU cable. It is connected to a Rogue Cronus Magnum ll, Oppo 205 and GE Triton Ones. I was thinking about a TT upgrade; possibly a higher tier Pro-Ject, a Rega Planar 6 or a VPI Scout. I mostly listen to classical music with an emphasis on opera.  
Do you think that this upgrade would make a significant difference or am I better off spending the money on something else?   
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To get a meaningful improvement you are going to have to take a significant step up. SOTA Sapphire, SME 15 with either a Kuzma 4 point 9 or  SME 4 tonearm, Lyra Delos or Clearaudio Tallisman gold. Then your operas will really sing!  
The thing about turntables, you're now starting to get into the range where it helps to stop thinking of them as a package and start thinking of the turntable in terms of individual table and arm.

The biggest weakness I see with your current rig isn't the table, or the arm, but the way the arm connects to the phono stage. I didn't understand this until I changed from a Graham 2.0 to Origin Live. Like you I had a pretty darn nice interconnect. I actually was afraid of having an arm with being unable to change the cable. Without hard-wiring anyway. I mean, I had a friggin custom cable made for me by Ted Denney! Turns out though that with the fragile fraction of a millivolt cartridge signal the number of connections far outweighs everything else. 

So one thing you might consider, instead of a whole new table which at this level you'd probably be forced into another package, to instead consider mounting as much arm as you can afford. Keep the arm you have and then later sell the table/arm for a better turntable for your better arm.

Another big benefit of this type of approach is since the arm is the only thing that changes you really learn the benefit and contribution of a good arm. Changing to a whole new table/arm combo you really have no idea what happened. The table might actually be worse, and the arm made up for the difference. Or vice versa. 

Everyone will probably tell you this is way too hard. Or that it can't even be done on your table. Well, have you looked at your table? Its a piece of MDF with a few holes and some nice paint. You could make the whole thing for like $10 including the rattle can. That's the real reason for all these models on the market. Huge markup. Fat profits. A good arm is the first step off that merry go round.