my experience can share some insight:
listened to a HMV Calypso idler record player during my first 5 years, then dad graduated to Garrard SP25 MK1 and listened all the way until I grew up, then got my own turntable, a belt drive Teac P988 which I later upgraded to another belt drive Technics SLBD20B. All this happened between 1971 and 2006. That's when I received my first real Technics DD turntable, the SL3200. On checking online, i got to read a lot about it and understood that it was a budget 1978 DD model from Technics without bells and whistles (which was actually nice, its a bare minimum TT with auto-return). Online reviews mentioned that as it has a thick plastic plinth, it is prone to feedback and rumble. Coming back to the story, this was a huge upgrade for me and for the first time in my life, i started to believe that a turntable can produce great sounds with highly accurate speed, unlike the idlers and belt drive turntables which i had listened to previously. The cart used was mostly Shure M44-7 running through a NAD 106 preamp or NAD 1020 preamp (alternately depending on who came to listen
)
Then I got bitten by the same bug that you've now encountered - can i better what i hear, that led me on a long chase, turntables like the Garrard 301, Garrard 401, Lenco 75, Technics SP25, Technics SP15, Thorens TD135, Technics SP10 MK2 with a whole host of tonearms like Garrard, Jelco, Ortofone, SME, Technics and even Sedco broadcast tonearms. In the process i gained a lot of acceptance and respect on online forums, was the talk of town among like minded friends, hosted listening sessions, heard instruments and sounds from recordings which i never heard before and a lot lot more. While going through this curve, one thing remained constant, my old Technics SL3200. I did notice that it had this unique open soundstage with the M44-7 which the others did not have. Also the humble Technics 3200 would play anything thrown at it, warped, stratched records, records with an off-center hole, pimpled records, what not. My 650 GBP NOS SME 3009 tonearms with Shure V15 carts perform extremely well on new records but when it came to the old stuff, i always had to go back to the old technics DD
My late father once told me, don't go chasing fancy turntables, focus on the cart, phono preamp and amplification. I did not listen to him. He was actually right. I realized this after a lot through the journey and lakhs of rupees later
Moral of the story, if you are already on a Technics DD, you are at the top of the mainstream value chain essentially (not the so called very high end though). From this point, a clever thing to do would be to try a better cart or better phonostage. If using a Technics DD turntable with a plastic plinth, building a thick and heavy wooden envelop for it would help. Calibrate the tonearm accurately, upgrade the interconnects and tonearm wiring (also clean all contacts also). Improvements with high end investments that one reads about are all very subjective and listener dependent. You can definitely achieve better results (that sound good to your ears) with your existing Technics DD turntable. If you really must upgrade and want to stop at something and forget the machinery after that, then invest in a good working Technics SL1210 MK2 direct drive deck. It is without doubt and by far the greatest turntable ever built for the common man (yes, it was so good that it even saw the end of the Garrards, the EMTs, the Gates/McCurdy/Byer/Russco/Rek-O-Kut family and even its own grand daddy, the SP10 MK2, in the broadcast world).
Where did my story go? well I still have a couple of Garrards and SMEs on my rig and a few more in storage but my Technics SL1210 and SL3200 are my regular play masters. Very happy with them.
Just my opinion. I've used a Technics SL 1500 for almost 6-7 years and I upgraded just the cartridge and phono stage a couple of times. I never felt the need to upgrade anything else. Currently I'm using a Denon DP 55L (had to buy another TT since I moved to a new place) which sounds better than the Technics to me. But I can still live with and enjoy the Technics very much!
