Newbie help - Building a system from scratch


Hello all, long time lurker here, looking for advice :)

Due to the Covid-19 situation, I haven’t been able to travel around and test equipment so I’m most likely to buy completely blind. Therefore, I’ve done quite a bit of research. Here is where I’m at:

  • Monitor Audio Silver 300

  • Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III

  • Rega Planar 3


How does this look? Do you think this would be a good match?

1. What is your budget?

I’m OK to spend about 7k to 10k on this.

2. What are you looking for?
  • Floor speakers

  • Tube Amp

  • Turntable

  • Optional: Streamer for Tidal

3. How will you typically be using the gear?

I will use them in a large room for targeted listening

4. What gear do you own?

Nada

5. What do you intend on using for a source?

Turntable and perhaps a streamer

6. What material will you be using your gear for?

Music only - I listen to Jazz, rock, soul, primarily. Some classical sometimes.

7. Are you willing to buy used?

I’m willing to buy used.


Any pointers are welcome :) 

swissified
Wow, thanks for a very detailed answer. Much appreciated. I'm blown away by your setup btw. 

The Tektons look awesome and reviews are great but I'm afraid they are;

a. Too big
b. Wouldn't pass the wife test :)

Still, I will keep them in mind for if/when we move and I have a dedicated listening room. 

Also, thanks also for the wisdom on cabling etc. I thought to start with the major components and sort out "details" later. 

On another forum, somebody pointed out that the amp is too expensive for the speakers I've chosen. How do you feel about that? Is this a hard-fast rule?

Background:

As I wrote, I've been doing online research about different components. I've read some pretty good reviews about the MA Silver 300s that included certain words that picked my interest so decided to use that as a starting point. After that, I started looking for a matching amp and saw some recommendations. Also, I've been meaning to build an analog system all along so started looking at mentioned tube amps. Finally boiled that down to Rogue Audio and PrimaLuna. Rogue Audio is better priced and has more available power to drive the MAs, so landed on that.


swissified,

"Is this a hard-fast rule?"
There are no hard and fast rules.

You did not inquire about the cartridge for your turntable although it will be a very important piece of the picture. I see that turntable can be ordered with no cartridge, or with different ones ( https://www.audioadvice.com/rega-planar-3-2016-turntable.html ). The price doubles and performance certainly follows (not linearly, though).

Monitor Audio Silver 300 are great speakers that you could probably even audition at home (Crutchfield!), if you do not mind the trouble of shipping them back. They are very non-intrusive in the room and come in different finishes. Your wife may be satisfied.

However, at that price range there is a batallion of great speakers worth considering. It would be the best if, after reading reviews, you could hear a few of them so you get a feeling of what kind of sound you do like. All can be pleasing, but not all to everyone while they can all cost the same. Words in written reviews can mean different things to different people. Differences may be subtle, but important to you. Allocate another $1000 to speakers and choices will become overwhelming.

Get the real equipment first and play with whatever add-ons later.

EDIT: If the room is larger and you pick Monitor Audio Silver 300, you may consider a subwoofer, too.
wecan help we have a  a Huge selection and wealways have some good trade ins some good trad ins

Dave and troy a0dio intellect nj
There's no one right answer to these questions because everything matters. Even the way I would do it myself if it were for myself or if someone were paying me would be different if I was doing it for "one and done" vs doing it to get started. Because one and done (which I have done for people) everything is very evenly budgeted out to maximize sound at that price. But most of us that is only a starting point.  

So the system I recommended has you with speakers that are by far the best part of the system, followed by a pretty darn good amp, and then merely above average phono, etc. This makes sense to me because it will sound awesome right now while at the same time giving you max upgrade flexibility. With really good speakers, cables and amp you could go to an excellent stand alone phono stage, or turntable.  

But you could also get much less speakers, pretty ones with WAF and try and make them sound good with a better amp like a Raven integrated. There's a lot of WAF speakers. What there aren't many of is DI quality sounding speakers. But your Rogue is a good idea because a) tube integrated and b) phono stage. 

The biggest challenge with analog is its really four essential components: table, arm, cart, stage. You could spend $6k on those alone and much less on the rest and yet still achieve excellent results. This is how Linn started back in the day, taking the LP12 to stores and hooking it up to their cheapest system and letting people hear it sounds better than their most expensive one. 

So its not just what you get now, but what you might get going forward. Those speakers, amp and cables will be as awesome if you wind up mostly streaming as if you wind up like me playing almost all records. But if you go records then you will be happy to have the option of adding a stand alone phono stage, or better table, or better cartridge. Or heck even a much better rack for the table. Any or all of these are great ways to grow starting from that base. If that is even what you want to do. 

That's the way my system got to what you see today. 16 years ago it was this https://theanalogdept.com/c_miller.htm Before that it was a McCormack amp on a board on the floor. No kidding.
Ok Swissified, you have a large room and you want to use a tube amp on a budget  listening to rowdy music. You are going to need very efficient Loudspeakers. I already know what you think too big is. Speakers always come first. Klipsch Heresy's should do fine. They are small, are very clean and neutral their only defect being a lack of significant bass below 40 Hz (just like every other floor stander near it's price range), they go very loud on minimal power and they have a very handsome retro look.
Rogue Cronus Magnum 3 will drive the Heresy's to an easy 110 dB no problem.  This system is now above the Rega 3's paygrade. I would go with a Clearaudio Concept/Satisfy tonearm and put a Charisma MM cartridge in it. The Charisma in perhaps the best rock and roll cartridge I have ever heard. You would have to spend serious money on a MC cartridge to get one as dynamic. Easily over 6 grand.  My Ortofon Windfeld Ti Cartridge, as great as it is can not keep up with the Charisma playing Rock and Jazz. 
Down the line you can think of hiding subwoofers somewhere:)
Oh, and just to give millercarbon a headache Tekton speakers are garbage.