preamp advice

nothing

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May 6, 2013
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I recently hooked up my old turntable to my surround sound system, and I'd really appreciate a bit of advice about the simplest budget upgrade I can do to get the biggest improvement in sound as I'm getting a fair bit of static/background noise and I don't really know how to fix it.

I've got a 20 year old Sound Research DJ-1600B Belt Drive Semi Automatic Turntable (original cartridge, not heavily used) which I've currently got hooked up via an Avico CDS-8 phono preamp to my Sony DAV-DZ100 surround system. The sound's not horrible, but I certainly wouldn't call it good either. :) I know that my surround sound system isn't top notch for music, but CDs sound fine on it so I don't think it's the best place to start spending money.

I do have a 35 year old Electronic Direct Drive Dual 704 turntable which I'm considering hooking up instead (it's in pristine condition) – does anyone have any advice regarding which turntable would be better quality? I'm sure the EDD would have cost more when new, but it is much older...

So I figure that the preamp is the weakest link (it's certainly the cheapest component) – it doesn't even have anywhere to attach the ground wire to, which I assume is probably contributing to my static issue. I'm willing to spend maybe $200 if it would make a significant difference to the sound, and I've seen a couple of reviews suggesting that the Cambridge Audio Azure 640P phono preamp as a good buy in that price range, but I'd love someone's opinion on whether it would be a) compatible with the rest of my system (I don't want to blow anything up), and b) the best way I could spend $200 to get the most out of my system. I wouldn't feel confident cracking open a preamp to muck around inside as I've seen recommended with the Cambridge 640P, but I'd say I'm tech savvy enough to install a new cartridge. Which leads me to my final question: Would the combo of a new preamp plus a new cartridge be significantly better than just upgrading the preamp - or worth bothering with at all, since it's been well taken care of? In which case, has anyone got any advice on how to choose a replacement cartridge, bearing in mind that I'm no expert and will only have a limited ability to mess around with balance, etc?

Sorry to bombard you with questions, and thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer. :)
 

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