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Which to upgrade first: Turntable or Phono Preamp

Hi, I just recently got back into vinyl about 8 months ago after switching to digital 30+ years ago.  My current setup is as follows:
 - Pro-ject Classic Turntable
 - Hana ML cartridge
 - Vincent PHO 701 phono preamp

I'm very happy with the Hana, but am thinking about upgrading either the turntable or the phono stage.   Although I'm not entirely unhappy with the current setup.   Just going through some upgrade fever I guess.   The question I have is which one do you think I should upgrade first:  Turntable or the Phone stage?

I'm thinking about the Clearaudio Concept turntable and the PS Audio Stellar phono stage, but I'm open to suggestion.   I'm hoping to spend under 3k on either.

Anyway, the real question is whether anyone thinks which upgrade will give me more bang for the buck: Turntable or Phono stage?

Thanks very much in advance.
xcool

Showing 2 responses by chakster

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Get rid of this Pro-Ject Classic toy as soon as possible. 
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
I read that direct drive turntable tends to be noisy because of the motor directly driving the platter.

You’d better try to detect anything like that, why don’t you just find someone or some place to spin some records on top class DD turntable? I have 6 of them in my listening room and I have no idea what those people are talking about, because they are (direct drive TTs) absolutely quiet in my system. 

There are also reviews that shun detachable head shells.

Use both types of tonearms, if you think you can use one cartridge forever then you don’t need a headshell, but if you have many cartridges you need removable headshell. Believe me, a cartridge alone (or your phono stage) is what you have to think about, not additional connection via headshell or direct connection to a cartridge. The difference is so small, I bet you can’t detect it in a blind test.
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