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Help me pick a phono, pre and cart

Hi all,
My WF spending restraints are going away so I’m going to upgrade my system.
I primarily play CD, but also have an MMF-5 with Glass platter, Golding GX1022 cart going through a Clear Audio Nano to Ayre Ax-7e to Sig 2 Ce’s.

This year I’m going to Quatro CT’s and upgrading my vinyl pre and source side. Next year I’m upgrading my main pre and power amp.

I’m looking for help in picking a phono player pre and cart. My musical taste is pretty wide: female vocals, rock, blues, jazz; not much classical on vinyl. Think Amy Winehouse/Cold Specks/Pixies/Weezer/Jeff Beck/Johnny Winter/Winton Marsalis and Maynard Ferguson for you other old timers. LOL
My budget is about $8-10k

Right now my main thoughts are VPI Prime Scout or Prime with Grado Statement series cart, and an Ayre Px-5e pre.
In addition to specific item recommendations, I’m very interested in how to split the budget item wise. In other words more or less on player vs cart vs pre, I.e. Scout with Statement2 or Prime with Reference2 for example. Or go higher than 20-30% on the pre?
I lean towards spending the most on what’s least upgradeable - sorry if that’s too general or obvious.
Thanks much
Jim

jetson
jtsnead's avatar
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jtsnead
217 posts
 
Modwright has a new tube phonostage PH 9.0 coming out soon. I will be a beta tester and will be comparing it to a Rogue Audio Ares Magnum (another good tube phono pre). The 9.0 has the controls on the front it uses 6922/6C45 tubes versus the 12AX7/12AU7 in the Ares. The ART9 is a great cartridge also can recommend the Ortofon Cadenza Bronze.
jaym759
50 posts
 
I have a pair of Vandersteen 5As, ARC Ref 3 preamp, ARC Ref 100 amp and am now ready to get a turntable,etc. My preamp does not have phono stage...so any suggestions about best way to complete my analog system will be greatly appreciated. 
jperry
2,453 posts
 
Something from the ARC Ref series. Maybe a Ref 2 or Ref 3 Phono stage.

You should probably start a new thread as well. Be prepared to be campaigned about the Herron phono stage
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
@atmasphere 

Yes- new tubes. We don't recommend NOS tubes for either the output tubes or the phono tubes. In the case of the latter, its just too hard to find NOS tubes that are actually in fact quiet- those were sold off the shelves decades ago and all that are left now are the dregs unless someone got extremely lucky. So we don't recommend NOS tubes for our phono sections- we encourage people to use new tubes if they want the best noise floor and lowest microphonics.

Most of the reputable tube dealers manually tested each NOS tube for low microphonics, low noise etc. Lucky people knows the difference between new and nos when it comes to the great tubes. I bet you have some decent NOS tubes yourself. 

Anyway it's a good news that your or herron preamps works great with stock new tubes. 

BTW i really like the design of Atma-Sphere MP-1 and MP-3 
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,856 posts
 
Most of the reputable tube dealers manually tested each NOS tube for low microphonics, low noise etc. Lucky people knows the difference between new and nos when it comes to the great tubes. I bet you have some decent NOS tubes yourself.

Anyway it’s a good news that your or herron preamps works great with stock new tubes.

BTW i really like the design of Atma-Sphere MP-1 and MP-3
Thanks!
Actually I don’t stash NOS tubes and I don’t use them. My thinking is I should be able to make it work with the garden variety of what’s available. Further, we usually find that the tube dealers really don’t have tubes as quiet as the new ones (we have found this out when customers have sometimes ignored our advice and tried to use NOS tubes). So I really mean it when I say we don’t recommend NOS tubes in our phono sections.
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