Upgrade: Turntable or Cartridge?

You wrote, "There are a few convenience things that are annoying, such as the decoupled motor which always ends up sitting against the table and needs to be moved." From this I gather that the tt has a stand-alone motor and that it moves during use such that eventually the pulley is in contact with the platter or the body of the motor comes in contact with the plinth. Either one of these phenomena is BAD news. There ought to be a way to stabilize the motor in one position such that it remains stationary at all times. This is a pre-requisite for speed stability. "Fairly decent" speed stability is not good enough. As to your actual question, it seems you are determined to replace your cartridge first. I don't know enough about your tt to recommend that you replace it, but at least set it up for optimal performance before you buy a new cartridge.

+1 to Lewm's comment.

Nothing in your post suggests any reason to upgrade. The gear you have isn't broken or worn out, but your description certainly makes it seem like it's imperfectly set up. Learn how to optimize what you have before succumbing to the upgrade bug. (N.B., optimizing ANY setup may require thinking outside the box by ignoring or supplementing instructions provided by the manufacturer.)

Throwing money at gear without using it effectively seems like a path to frustration, not to mention financial ruin. If you want to pour money down a bottomless hole, buy a boat! ;-)

I have a Clearaudio Performance with a stand alone motor and Satisfy carbon arm. I also have a boat. the boat cost more to buy and maintain. As for the turntable, my motor does not constantly move towards the plinth. somethingn doesnt seem right there, even if the plinth is cut out in the shape of the motor like mine. I use a Clearaudio Maestro Wood and the sound is excellent, clear, detailed and warm bodied. The speed contol is excellent measured with a strobe disc that never varies from dead on.

However, if you dont have everything set up properly, you are wasting your time. You might want to take it apart, and setup the entire table again from scratch. I try to do that every 6 months or so on all my tables, just to be sure. Its too easy to fall into complacency over time. and its not just an adjustment from where it is. I take the arm and cartridge off, and start over as if I was doing it for the first time. Of course, with some tonearms, the hole and mounting screws dont give you much option as to where to mount the arm unless you want to start drilling new holes.

So, try that and see if you can tell any difference. If not, I would try a different cartridge first.

Lots of great suggestions and help here, much appreciated.

Regarding the decoupled motor, yes it is quite an annoyance. I don't notice it moving while a record is playing, but it mostly seems to move when I have to press the switch on the side of the motor on or off. I normally check to see if this has happened before I play a record by grabbing the tonearm with my thumb, index, and middle finger; if the motor has moved and is touching the plinth, I can feel vibrations coming into the tonearm. I then move the motor so that it's not touching the plinth at all. The old Clearaudio Emotion has a round "cut out" for the motor to fit into, so it's very easy for it to move just enough for any one point of the motor to make contact with the plinth; not a very good design choice. However, the bearing still seems to work very smoothly. I could probably benefit from a new belt though.

I actually ended up ordering a Dynavector 20x2L, which is being delivered today. I'm excited to put it into place, because now I'll be able to hopefully tell which audible limitations are due to the cartridge and/or turntable. Way back when I upgraded to the Emotion from a Music Hall MMF-5.1 about 4.5 years ago (it came with a Virtuoso cart), I do remember noticing less bass compared to the MMF, but can't recall exactly on the depth or quality of it. However, reading recent reviews of the Clearaudio Concept, they all point out that bass is not a particular strength of the unit. So it might be fair to say that historically, Clearaudio has chosen bass as a design compromise in its lower-priced 'tables.

If I were in your position I would change first turntable.
Let me explain.
In vain have the best cartridge in the world, if the cartridge can not show exactly what he can do.
The cartridge is the last to be changed.
I see so sequence change: turntable, arm and cartridge