Need advice on a turntable question

I needed a new turntable as my old one was too expensive to fix so I purchased a Project Debut Carbon with the Ortofon Red cartridge that came with it.I found that my old Levinson ML1 pre amp had a moving coil stage inside (as I was using a Denon 103S cartridge)and that it would not work with the Ortofon moving magnet cartridge.The Project dealer sold me an ArtCessories pre amp that would work with the Ortofon cartridge.He stated that the components in my old Levinson pre amp (which he said were not that good to begin with)were over 35 years old and the fact that my Denon cartridge was the same age that the new Ortofon and new preamp would sound far better that the old components.I am breaking in the new parts now which I assume will take at least 20 hours but at first listen my new parts are no match for the old components.What is your opinion am I getting BS'ed??