Phono Amp for new Rega Planar 10 with Apheta 3


I am looking for a phono stage that let my Rega Planar 10 with Apheta 3 discover its full potential. What are your thoughts driven by experience? I tried new Chord Huey ($1495) but I have a feeling its an underperformer considering Rega's $7k price tag. Similar situation with Rega Aria - will it be enough? Any Aria users out there? 
The Rega's top of the line Aura is severely overpriced in US and honestly I am not sure I fully justify spending that much on a phono stage.
Any recommendations greatly appreciated! 
arturgorniak
Welllll - he did say -
"At least for now!"

Oh well - my post might be of help other readers.

Nothing on this forum is ever a waste of time - except the obvious :-)
Sorry, I didn't mean anything against your post.  I just happened to post mine after you posted yours.

Thank you all for good recommendation. Owned several high end turntables with expensive cartridges and some quite good phono stages. The conclusion I have reached is that if you have so-so system, average record player will make you very happy. On the other hand if the rest of your system is top-notch (including high end digital source), it is very difficult for analog to match or outperform digital without spending major $$$$$.

I tried several phono stages in $2-3k category and they all sound so so….the game changes once high-end phono is used. The problem is that I do not want to spend $20k just for my analog front experience to justify it as better than my digital front.


At least you know what you want/don’t-want now.  I’m a vinyl addict and feel exactly the same toward digital.