advice for my clear audio analogue upgrade path

@williewonka good stuff thanks for the advice!  I'm betting my guy isn't using anything more than the clear audio template for cart set up.

@joey54  thanks for the review and also making my first step the most expensive. :0.  I'm thinking my sound smith Boheme would be able to "pedal along" with the ovation.  Even so, I wonder if my clear audio basic + stage would mute the sound.......

Sorry about that! Good Luck with whatever you do. You might want to talk to Garth Leerer at Musical Surroundings. I find him to offer great advice and he might be more objective about this than me.

So after much consideration, I've decided to upgrade the Cart to Soundsmith "The Voice" and then the phono stage.  I believe I can still grab more from the table.

My question for you dhpeck would be what about your current set up that you don't like?  Is there one component in that analogue path that you like the least and why?  Is your cartridge set-up to reap the maximum reward of what it is capable of?  Soundsmith does make good cartridges and if I just had to pick something in your set up, I would probably say the phono preamp. 

 I enjoy having one with more choices (phono preamp) in set up if you can.  A lot of people believe that their cartridge is set up well because a dealer set it up, or because they think they got it right (not saying that you don't) but truth be told items like the Fozgometer do go a long way to help with Azimuth, also tools like the Pro-ject Align it if you don't want to spend a ton has the mirror, which can help with azimuth as well as the two point nul system and pivot to spindle distance (which shouldn't be a problem for you). 

 If the cartridge set up is off a little, especially azimuth, it can make a huge difference with distortion.  I wish you look in your upgrade of the cartridge.