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Originally Posted by Hack&Lube
I started with the Audio Technica AP-LT120 back in the day. I discovered the anti-skating was fake and didn't work. I haven't followed AT since and don't know if the LT120X has improved this. Biggest symptom was tonearm drift when tracking a smooth record and jumping inward toward the first track and hugging the inner walls instead of being centered in the groove. Rega P3 should be a nice upgrade but the biggest upgrade you can make is in the cartridge. Platter material and all these other things are mostly myths just like tone wood in guitars.
Modern turntables are works of art but I've seen some vintage ones with full electro-mechanical auto-return or repeat functions and it's a fantastic convenience if you want to leave a record on while you are doing chores, etc.
For network streamer, make the investment if you have high-quality digital audio but digital is digital. A cheap Bluetooth 5.0+ device will be exactly the same as a very expensive appliance with marketing fluff. Most of my digital content is compressed Spotify Free or Youtube streams so I can't tell a difference.
Your modern speakers are a lot better than most vintage ones but that might be because of age in dried up cones and foam. My general theory on hifi audio is that vintage is a great bang for your buck for features and performance if you are listening to line-level 2.0 audio. Modern stuff is better if there is some kind of audio modelling or AI enhancement technology in place but you can get most of this from software. The rest is just a lot of marketing just as has always existed in the audiophile arena.
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Thanks for sharing and the feedback!
Very nice setup, I have always been intrigued by the vintage market for HiFi audio. I'm just really getting into it now this year one I had some extra money to spend so it's been a fun journey.
Really looking forward to hearing the difference when I pick up the P3. I'll look into a cartridge upgrade for it as well, thanks for all info and suggestions!