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Turntable upgrade recommendations, please.

Hello,

I am a bit of a newbie, but have have been chasing the "magic" every since I got started on this journey about 2 years ago. My system currently consists of:

Denon dp-47f w/ a Denon 301 mkII cartridge
McIntosh MAC6700
Magnepan 1.6qr

I am interested in upgrading my turntable, assuming that there are real sonic benefits to be had from a new rig at approx. $2500. I have been looking at the usual suspects from VPI, Rega, Pro-ject, etc. 

I am curious to hear if those of you with more experience can tell me how my Denon stacks up against these and if the view will be worth the climb. To my ears, the Denon sounds good, but I am anxious to upgrade if there are significant gains to be heard.

I am also very interested in a McIntosh MT2, but haven't seen any new info or announcements on the release.

Please share your opinions and experiences. 

Thanks in advance!


sdmbdad71

Showing 2 responses by rbstehno

rbstehno
1,401 posts
 
IMO, I would continue saving until you can get a vpi prime or something similar. The tt’s you mention are not that much better and in a couple of years you are going to be doing another upgrade. The tt base is important, but I think the tonearm is much more important so you can start upgrading cartridges. If you get a similar tt/arm that is equivalent to what you have, the tonearm will be a limiting factor
rbstehno
1,401 posts
 
If you would get any VPI tt with the 3d arm, you will far ahead of the other tt mentioned. Any Denon, old SOTA, rega, etc.. tt will be limited by the tonearm, meaining you will be limited on moving up the cartridge line, that’s where you will see SQ gains overtime. If you like a specific tt like a Denon/SOTA/basis/rega/other brands, upgrade the arm to a VPi 3d 10” or 12”, Graham, Tri-planar the you will be able to upgrade your cartridge at anytime. But the cost of any of these tonearms will be more than the cost of a VPi prime tt new
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