I suspect you would be disappointed with the sound. As a taper, you probably have an A/D converter that's far better than what Denon is putting in this thing. You could just use the analog out, but it's not likely to have a very good phono stage in the first place. After all, they had to cut corners to equip it with an A/D converter while keeping costs down.
Look into a Rega / Dynavector 10x4 / Creek combination. The 'table and phono pre you could buy used, but obviously a used cartridge is not a good idea. I can vouch for Rega and Creek, but I've only read about the Dyna which seems to be highly praised. I wouldn't recommend a Rega cartridge, even though they mount easily to their tonearms with no hassle.