KAB 1200 vs. everything else.

Perhaps a different phono preamp on par with your lamm line stage with current cart and a used gerrard tt should smoke your cd player on most recordings

My cd player playback design is great and better than previous emmlabs I owned but still my lenco with shelter 501mk2 and rega rb700 easily matches it or even surpassed it on many recordings

Sorry. sloppy me. The arm would be the weaker link IMHO. ...and IMHO the Heed
phono stage ain't that bad (but I'm a dealer for them), obviously not up to your
Lamm but neither is the table/arm. I thought I made it clear that for that money
you did arguably well in your choices however theory might conflict with
practice. Since I haven't compared the KAB version I have little to say to conflict
with your choices if you don't want to retro fit another arm. My comments have
been to lend perspective to the conversation rather than to criticize your
choices.

Folks, some of you are proposing spending more money...more expensive
phono preamp, more expensive table...

Not gonna do it.

I have a silver disc player worth $2500 that is superior to the
$4500 vinyl rig. Why would I dump more money into vinyl playback in an
attempt to make it equal? As I own no vinyl that cannot also be purchased on
CD, it makes no sense to spend more than double on vinyl playback.

Piedpiper, I'm going to assume you would be thinking of replacing the
Technics arm with a Rega arm as others have done. If so, the jury is out
whether that combo is better than the KAB Technics or not, but there's no
question that it'd be different.

Tearing apart the Technics would destroy its resale value for those interested
in a KAB Technics, so I'd rather keep it intact.

Since no table/arm/cart alternative at the $1800 price point has been
mentioned, I'll assume what I own is good for the investment, and I'll move
on from here.

Tvad, I just read through this thread , I am a little confused with some dollar figures mentioned for your table and cd player.
$6,500 cd player and $4500. for your table mentioned 12-25-08.
Is the $2500 and $1800. mentioned above used currant market value for your front ends?

Speaking for myself, putting all my effort into one play back format and sticking with it is best.

FWIW, I think you've optimized your $1800 quite wisely.