I have been content with better vintage gear for years. When we decided to convert a bedroom into a dedicated listening room about 2 years ago, I started building a hi end system. Initially I still had the vintage mentality while buying gear, also saving some money. That approach has not been very successful and the Pro-Ject could be the final straw.
The phono stage is my weak link now. While the Pro-Ject was out for repair, I got a Jolida JD9 that is quite good but doesn't have balanced outputs to connect to my Classe CP-65.
I am open to options.