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Your choice - TT, Arm, Stage, Cartridge - $5000 budget

So imagine you were just given ~$5000 and told to buy your ideal analog setup within that budget.

What would be your choice for turntable, arm, phono stage, and cartridge be? Any other accessories to consider?

How would you spend it?


Obviously I’m looking to upgrade my analog setup and am focusing on the essential components at this time. Curious how you would spend my money haha.

My current gear:
Amp - Primaluna Dialogue HP integrated w/ KT150 power tubes, Mullard and Cifte preamp tubes.
Loudspeakers - Tekton Design Double Impact

For sound,I like the idea of a balanced overall sound, and a big soundstage. But what I really enjoy most is the idea of exposing the holographic image in a recording.




128x128whacky
inna
7,296 posts
 
I just wanted to mention the cable from phono to amp. It is very important.
whacky's avatar
whacky OP
53 posts
 
Fact.

I've definitely tried a few, but plan on upgrading to something on pair with the quality of setup. I'm open to suggestions for that as well. I've budgeted separate money for that. 

I just needed to wait untill I determined which table and arm setup first, as to get the right type of connection between DIN or RCA. 
inna
7,296 posts
 
Right. As most agree, the first cable in the chain is most important. In my case it goes from cartridge to the phono so I didn't have to think about it. Nottingham arm cable is known to be very good, some people do rewire the arm. I probably would too with Purist Audio cable since that's the brand that I use, but it would cost a lot, I would have to find someone whom I could trust, and I might upgrade the arm in a few years. But the table itself will stay with me  for a very long time.
inna
7,296 posts
 
In addition, in some way, in my opinion, one has to match the cartidge with the table and speakers’ character. As an example, Nottingham table is on the warm side of neutral and so are my speakers, only more. I did not want to put either too warm or somewhat cold sounding cartridge, this would’ve been wrong. That’s how, among other considerations, I came up with Goldring 1042 MM.
If you go with VPI, I heard that one of the best combinations with them is Soundsmith MM. I would not go below Carmen model, it’s currently $1k, I think. Those cartridges are said to be quite sensitive to VTA, however. Whether you take it as good, bad or both is another matter.
inna
7,296 posts
 
Carmen cartridge is $800 from musicdirect.com
I was hesitating when I was choosing a cartidge for myself and narrowed it down to that Goldring and Carmen, which also works fine in Nottingham arm. It was $600 then. Decided on Goldring but not because of price difference.
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