Agreed, upgrade the integrated. Look at the Audiolab 6000A. Fully featured, wonderful sound, reasonable and a nice built in phono section. My fave except for maybe the Parasound Int. I would say don't cheat on the cartridge either. I see a lot of nice ($500.00+) turntables sporting a $79.00 cartridge. My old rule of thumb, crude as it may be, is 25-30% of the TT cost for the cartridge. That's 70's thinking but that's when I started in to audio...
Recommend an Entry Level Turntable (And maybe an integrated Amp)
I've been wanting to upgrade my system for a long time now.
My system currently consists of a pair of B&W 630's, an old Denon 50 watt reciever (DRA-550) from the mid 80's, and a Marantz 5004 cd player. I'm pretty happy with all three.
I'm looking to get into vinyl and The Project Debut Carbon turntable was recommended. I listened to it but wasn't amazed by it. So I sent it back.
I then called my local audio store and the salesman said that if the system sounds good with cds but not with the turntable then the weak link is probably the phono pre amp.
So, he recommended the NAD C388 integrated amp which has the added benefit of more power (150 watts per channel) and bluetooth as well (something I definitely want). He did qualify it by saying that reciever/amp technology hasn't changed much over the years.
He also recommended an upgrade of the turntable cartridge to the Sumiko Rainier.
Just thinking out loud. I'd be open to adding a bluetooth and a new phono preamp to the Denon, but I'm not sure if that would be better.
TIA