If you had $12k / £10k to upgrade your analogue front-end...


Hi all,

I am upgrading my system in my listening room bit-by-bit. This room is for focused listening of music only. No movies. In the future I will be looking looking to upgrade my analogue front-end and am thinking of a budget of around $12k / £10k for a turntable, tonearm, cart and phono stage/pre-amp. I listen to all sorts of music from electronic, bass-heavy vinyl, jazz, hip-hop, rock (new and old), ambient (Cinematic Orchestra, Nils Frahm etc...) and lots of soul/funk type tracks. So quite varied.

If you had $12k/£10k to spend, what combination of turntable, tonearm, cart and phone stage/pre-amp would you go for? I'm looking for suggestions to help with my research. I'm unsure what the balance should be between them. For example, should I go for a Rega Planar 10 with Aphelion 2 cart (£6,840) and give myself just over £3k to spend on a phono stage. Or spend less on the cart (Rega Planar 10 with Apheta 3 is £4,950) and get a more expensive phono stage.

Turntable brands I've been thinking of are Rega, Clearaudio, Technics, VPI, AVID, Thorens, Michell Engineering, VPI, SME etc... but don't really know where to start.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

cainullah

Can you listen to several of the Moon phono pre's? Since you mention a pending Moon upgrade I am guessing you can. Even if you end up preferring another brand, you can get a sense of what happens as phono pre improves.

If you see a second hand STST Motus DQ grab it!

Also look into PTP Audio

Rega P8 (I prefer it to the P10)

Rega Aura phono stage (among the best I have heard at any price)

Ortofon Cadenza Bronze

 

 

 

 

If your not adverse to used, a SOTA refurbished table from the company is a great buy and will hold its own for quite a while. I have a Star Sapphire with vacuum hold down, an SME V arm and Kiseki cart all for about $7500. Added a Fosgate Signature tube phono stage and I’m done. To me a very fine sounding analog setup.

+1 @lalitk

Find the best tt/arm and then the road is easier.

I assume that you live in the UK, just to add one for your nice headache, you can check Bauer Audio DPS 3. Could be your end of the road tt.