Phono preamp question

dlcockrum, thanks for the recommendation. I’ll look into cartridges as well.

DeKay, sorry about the confusion. I made a mistake with the model number. One thing I should add for full disclosure is I bought the Technics mostly out of curiosity and based on what a lot of folks had said about the quality of their direct drive tables. And this one happened to be so close to me. As for the budget, I’m thinking something around $400-$500 used should be better than what I have in my 565.
My original concern is/was to spend the money on the phono stage and only get incremental improvement due to the quality limitations imposed by putting the 565 downstream from it.

Yes, the GFP-565 has a very good phono stage. You'd have to spend well over $500 on a used phono stage to best it.

I agree with dlcockrum - your best bang-for-the-buck upgrade would be your cartridge.

Kalali,
    There is an Audible Illusions 2D preamp (full function including phono) for just $420 used on Audiogon in the past couple days.  It took well over a $3000 phono section to best my previous Audible Illusion 3A.  Waste your money on some cheaper built phono preamp when you could have a much better sounding full-function preamp for about the same money and sell your old preamp and it will cost you very little overall.

If you have not already done so try the line out (to power amp) on the 565 that eliminates the tone controls (forget what it’s called, but you know what I mean).

Also purchase or download a cartridge alignment tool to check setup (proper cartridge setup makes a huge difference in sound quality).

Research stylus and LP cleaning. I use a Magic Eraser and a stylus brush on my Grado, but care needs to be taken with the ME (gobs of how to info in the forums).

Make certain that the deck/platter are level and that the arm is properly balanced prior to setting the trackingforce/anti skating - again "setup".

You might also look into an upgraded stylus for the 95 if they are still available (I’ve only heard the OEM SE version, but there were others).

My bad, I meant to add what I paid for my preamp & phono amp in the post above. I bought them both when they were about 10 years old for around 25% of their original cost. I wouldn't necessarily recommend buying anything that old now unless it was completely gone through, but wouldn't hesitate buying another 10 year old unit if it was a well built one. You should be able to do that for a relatively reasonable price if you so choose.