Got A Turntable...What Next?

No the first answer is absolutley true. I can... drive La scalas with the 1.5 watt amplifier to loud levels but you will never ever hear how good the speaker is until you put some real power into.

Don't sell your speakers. Those are unique. However, they, like most Altec home furniture cabinets, suffer from a choked bass and a clipped upper end. The cabinets are just too small for the 15 inch bass drivers. And there are two of them in each of these cabinets. You could swap the 803A (I'm assuming it's an A) for 416s through, which might help the bottom end. Great Plains Audio sells them.

There are lots of great compression drivers that go much higher than Altec compression drivers, too, but I don't think that's your problem. My guess is old capacitors and inductors with a low crossover point. FWIW, I use BMS compression drivers in my Valencias (a truly underachieving cabinet design), along with a modded crossover and much more substantial internal cabinet bracing. I've no problems, but then a lot of Altec fans would burn me at the stake for what I've done. On the other hand, my speakers sound great with my turntable.

As mentioned, you're going to need some power to push those drivers and the crossover. Perhaps you could spend a little money and try biamping with an active crossover?

My suggestion is to keep the items. Replace the amp, or borrow a tube amp with more power, listen fo a while.
Stick with the vinyl, you're a lucky guy.

Thanks everyone for your valued suggestions.
Plato & Restock: I am not getting rid of the speakers or TT
I am going to try a more powerful amp first. Any you can recommend?
Raul: Yes, i am interested in a better phono amp w/tubes
any suggestions? I agree that eventually i will move to a better unit so why not enjoy the better quality for now.

Restock:
About the Shelter cart....It is a NON-forgiving cart,
only really well recorded and pressed LP's
sound really good and other users have noted the very good
midrange and weaker bass. I don't really know which upgrade
path to take here, could use suggestions on which would be
a better match for my arm.

First thing i did before i played one vinyl was buy a RCM.
A Nitty Gritty manual one. Works fine, had one 15 years ago

I agree that trying out different items in my system until
i find the right combination is the way to go. I am not selling anything and i am really enjoying the set-up and playing lots of records every night. Just want to improve
on what i have.

I will first see if the turntable is setup properly with the tonearm and cartridge -- vertical/horizontal position of the tonearm, cartridge position, and tracking force/anti-skating. Also, I will think of having some isolation device.
Assuming your cartridge is a decent MC, I would make sure whether the needle is either worn out or bent.
Your preamp seems to be decent enough, so as others suggested, I will think of upgrading to a more powerful amp.