Where is the most improvement in sound quality in a vinyl setup?

I think tweaking azimuth and vertical tracking angle are the most important aspects of vinyl playback in general.

http://www.elpj.com/ ELP for the win?

I would say, in order - cartridge - setup - phono stage - Turntable, then all the smaller stuff - cables, tweaks etc.  I do believe that cartridge, and setup are KEY, then a nice phono stage, but those are available without selling a kidney, unless you have already sold your other kidney and part of your liver for cartridge and turntable, then you might be held back by a sub 1K phono pre.etter

 

Looking at your system, I would agree that you might can find a better phono stage for that.  The 103 needs a great phono pre with either step up transformers, or a lot of gain.  There should be several MC capable phono pre amps that would fit.  The Eddie Current one is reviewed well here on Head-Fi by some folks that I tend to listen to.  Currently I am using the RSA Nighthawk which would work well with your set up also, at a lower pricepoint.  There is fiddle factor with each, the tube rolling and need to warm up a tubed pre-amp is a negative for me, while keeping the battery charged on the Nighthawk can be problematic if I don't remember to turn it off when I am finished for the session.  The Nighthawk also is very adjustable on the fly.  You can play with loading and gain while playing the record to see what works best for you.

 

Likely I will end up with a Transcriptor one of these days though.

Edited by Bones13 - 3/26/11 at 7:27am

It's hard to say. You can make a convincing argument for the turntable itself, the arm, cartridge, and phonostage. Setup is critical, too.

I'd go in with a holistic approach. Figure out your end goal and plan around that instead of just looking for particular upgrades. If you just make one upgrade, you'll eventually lead yourself down the garden path of more upgrades. You can spend less by buying with some planning.

I ended up going whole hog on the vinyl rig. Wasn't what I set out to do, but after falling in love with the Rega Planar 3, I picked up a Gyrodec. I intended to stop there, but got obsessed. I upgraded it to a full Orbe, dropped on a SME IV and picked up the Yph. It's all paid for and sounds great, but might have stopped at the Gyrodec if I had been able to hold back.

I've got a Sony PS-4750. I bought it 32 years ago, after looking at everything out there at that time. I wanted a fully manual turntable, and the PS-4750 was, it appeared, a nice one. Today, this turntables tonearm is fitted with a Shure V15VMR. I think my records sound as good as they could on any turntable/tonearm/cartridge combination since vinyl sounds, other than pops here and there, exactly like CD. Nevertheless, based on what the audiophiles claim, I'm tempted to up-grade. It's only my maturity that tells me, I'm already there.

I would have to say that turntable set up is the best bang for your buck improvement to be had because.....it's free!  There are some great printable protractors that are pretty easy to use and depending on your cartridge, can have major effects on sound quality.

 

http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge-alignment-protractors.shtml

 

I use a Denon DL-160 and absolutely love it, but poor setup makes it sound quite terrible.  A new phono pre won't do anything for a poorly set up rig.  I can also recommend some tweaks from KAB for the 1200 (www.kabusa.com).  The fluid tonearm damper is a relatively cheap, reversible mod that can help tracking and record noise a lot.

 

I hope this is helpful, good luck!