And on what turntable is this arm mounted? Thanks
Should I upgrade my phono linestage first or the tonearm for better results?
Hello all,
I am wondering if I would get more out of an upgrade to my current tonearm, the Graham 2.0, or should I switch out the phono stage AcousTech Ph1P? I am guessing about the same money either way, budget around $2500 for the upgrade. I would be looking to purchase used equipment on this.
Related components:
Clearaudio Virtuoso 2 cartridge
BAT VK 31SE preamp
Krell KSA 250 amplifier
Aerial 10T speakers
Graham IC70 tonearm cable
Transparent reference interconnects
Transparent Ultra MM bi-wire speaker cables
Thank you in advance!!
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- 21 posts total
A point you may want to factor into your decision is that the Virtuoso v2 cartridge appears to have a recommended load capacitance of 100 pf, and the input capacitance of your phono stage is specified as 220 pf. The capacitances of the wiring between the cartridge and the phono stage will add to that 220 pf, and under typical circumstances would probably bring the total load capacitance seen by the cartridge to something like 350 pf or even more. The result of that mismatch would be a frequency response peak probably occurring somewhere in the vicinity of 10 to 15 kHz, followed by a sharp rolloff above that frequency. Configuring a vinyl front end such that the total load capacitance seen by a cartridge is as low as 100 pf can often be unachievable, and a modestly higher number than that probably won’t make much if any difference. But applying 350 pf or more when 100 pf is recommended strikes me as an issue that should be taken into account in your decision. I'll mention also that the majority of moving magnet cartridges have load capacitance recommendations significantly higher than 100 pf, and much higher in many cases. Good luck, however you decide to proceed. Regards, -- Al |
OK. Thanks. My opinion is that you should save your $ and wait until you can commit more money to a substantially major upgrade. The Teres can take whatever arm/cartridge combo you throw at it and $2.5K would not (in my opinion) get you a real upgrade from where you are now (assuming this is $2.5K net of the resale value of whatever you get rid of). If you could go to $4K for example there is a Durand Kairos available at present, in other words I’d be looking at $6-8K arms, and commensurate cartridges and phono stages. Anything short of that you are going sideways, assuming that is you like the kit you have at present. If you really feed the need to upgrade at present then I’d invest in super setup tools like the SMARTractor, you save the difference and you have something that will serve you going forward http://www.arche-headshell.de/alignment-tools/smartractor/ |
- 21 posts total