Need Advice on Setup Upgrade - Help me determine lowest hanging fruit

[ARI_805]

Hi all, new to the forum.

 

To much of your potential dismay, I went with an AT LP-60 for my first player. It's what I could afford at the time, given my impatience. It's been running fine for years, but I'd like to invest in some higher quality equipment. 

 

My main concern is that upgrading the turntable might not actually be the lowest hanging fruit on my tree, relative to the whole setup. 

 

First, some quick questions that have materialized since I bought that first table:

1. How much does the audio cable quality/length/type affect the sound, if at all?

2. How necessary is continuous tempo control vs discrete 33 1/3 vs 45 vs 78 speeds? (I.E. is ALL vinyl true to the original recording BPM/tempo, or is it necessary to 'undo' slight stretching or condensing of the tempo?)

3. Is there any tonal advantage to having the pre-amplification inside vs outside the turntable unit?

 

Here's my current setup (try not to laugh):

-AT LP-60 Table (running it in 'line' output setting to take advantage of the built in preamp)

wired to an inline volume knob --> then wired to speakers (all via red/white RCA)

-Connected to two JBL LSR305 active studio monitors

 

All in all, I have always thought 'the speakers sound great with anything I put through them' (I have a 4 way analog RCA switch that allows me to run CD/Vinyl/3.5mm AUX through the same speakers). That being said, I have been exposed to higher fidelity systems and certainly appreciate the difference in quality.  

I'd like to put myself on the trajectory to be able to continuously upgrade my system one piece at a time. My budget for immediate upgrades would be about $750.

 

Thanks to anyone that reads this and helps me learn a thing or two!

 

Cheers, 

 

ARI

 

[Tommy]

If it were me, I would probably spring for a nice $600 integrated amplifier first

Then save towards a nicer TT

Then speaker upgrade (I put this last, since you said you do like the sound of your existing)