@noromance
VAC offers an "SE" upgrade for their standalone Renaissance phono stage that adds some 30+ of those Z-foil resistors and Jupiter copper/beeswax coupling caps. Still not a cheap stage by any means, but $14.4K is a hell of lot less than 60 - 80! Unfortunately a lot of those Z-foils are allocated for the MC loading, and I bypass it all to come into MM because I prefer other SUT's to the built-in Lundahls.
I’ve had both the SE and non-SE versions of this Renaissance phono in my system, currently own the SE. Both sound amazing. The SE does have extra clarity and detail but honestly the extra warmth of the non-SE ($10K) can be appealing too. Can’t go wrong either way if you have a high-end upstream to take advantage of it; they both make magic.
VAC offers an "SE" upgrade for their standalone Renaissance phono stage that adds some 30+ of those Z-foil resistors and Jupiter copper/beeswax coupling caps. Still not a cheap stage by any means, but $14.4K is a hell of lot less than 60 - 80! Unfortunately a lot of those Z-foils are allocated for the MC loading, and I bypass it all to come into MM because I prefer other SUT's to the built-in Lundahls.
I’ve had both the SE and non-SE versions of this Renaissance phono in my system, currently own the SE. Both sound amazing. The SE does have extra clarity and detail but honestly the extra warmth of the non-SE ($10K) can be appealing too. Can’t go wrong either way if you have a high-end upstream to take advantage of it; they both make magic.