Hello All! Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide as I am new to this forum. A bit of background.. I worked in the residential AV industry for many years from the late 90's but it has been a decade or more. Back then I enjoyed listening to vinyl but have been out of it for at least 15 years. Ironically, it has now become a fad for teens so my daughters asked for a record player and some albums for Christmas. Of course they asked for a suite case player and I was not able to bring myself to buy that. But, I also did not have the budget to spend "rea; money" for a player like I used to sell back in the day. So I set out to find an entry level TT that had counter weight, anti skate, and seemed to be built well and I ended up with the Mitchel Acoustics TT2 (Standard price is $300). It came with an AT91 cartridge. Now my audio system is dual use Home theater and music and is pretty nice stuff in my opinion. I use a Yamaha theater AVR with the pre-outs running to old B&K amps (other than Atmos speakers run from the Yamaha). Speakers are old Sonus Faber Grand Piano's which I love. The TT2 has a built in phono pre-amp with on/off option, but I am not using that and instead using the phono inputs on the Yamaha AVR. Anyway, after getting everything connected and heading to the record store to buy a few Jazz records I remember loving, I have been sucked back in. For an entry level player, I am loving the sound and am hooked already on the analog and natural sound of Vinyl. So here is where the questions come in...
As much as I am enjoying this, I can hear that there is room for improvement, however I do not and will not any time soon have the budget to already upgrade the entire TT. So I am looking for the most impactful way of improving the sound from this table. I remember believing that a cartridge upgrade would make the most immediate impact. What do you think? Many decades ago I owned Sumiko and I think I had a Pearl. It appears they go for around $100. Would that (or another cartridge < $200) make a substantial impact? Does a platter upgrade really matter? What about a platter mat / cartridge upgrade to get started?? You can see where I'm going here.. Also, can you add a record weight to any TT or will this burn out the belt drive motor?
I appreciate anyones thoughts and suggestions. Also, from a music stand point for cartridge suggestions my is very wide. I enjoy classic rock (Big Dead / Allmans fan etc), Bluegrass, Folk, Jazz, Blues, Old country, and many other types of music. Basically anything other than Pop Rock or metal and I can enjoy it. Thanks again!
