While cost is not necessarily a quality gauge, with $6,500 list in my digital and less than a $1,000 list in the analog; I keep thinking real improvement is going to require a better table and cartridge.
I had what I thought was a really nice digital front end. Very happy with it. Until I got the idea to drag out my 30 year old Technics to compare, just for kicks. The cantilever on the Stanton 681EEE had somehow gotten bent. Pliers bent it fairly straight looking enough without breaking, this is just for fun anyway, oh wait I need a phono stage, drag out an even older Kenwood integrated (back in the 70's they all had phono stages built in) and fired it up. Holy crap. What the.... was still playing records when the wife came home. That sounds really good, what is it? Tom Petty. No I mean what, it sounds so good! (She couldn't see the turntable, assumed it was some kind of special CD.) Its a record. Dang! Well it sounds really good!
If your $1k table isn't kicking butt on your DAC its not the table. Its the setup, or your choices (AT? Really?).
Get some Nobsound springs ($30) adjust so its almost fully compressed using the least amount of springs you can. This will improve bottom end while taming the top end, and you will be able to fine tune and tailor the amount by adding springs or weight. Less springs/more weight more bottom end/less top end. And vice versa.
Then when you go shopping for a better table skip everything that uses an interconnect. Interconnects on phono adds a whole bunch of connections, each one harmful to the delicate phono cartridge signal. Interconnects introduce noise, distortion, and expense. Stick with arms with hard wired phono leads. Better sound, less money.
