Dedicated Vinyl system next upgrade?

@mijostyn good to know. Thanks.

@big_greg thanks. Yeah I’ve thought about adding two more subs but I don’t really have the room. Maybe when I move out of my condo. Good call tho!

That’s nice gear. I would recommend two upgrades:

1. If you have the magnetic-bearing Concept tonearm, change that out to a rigid bearing arm: e.g. in the Clearaudio amp, a Satisfy (good) or Tracer (better). You may not have severe issues with the magnetic arm now, but it’s always there lurking - maybe if you change cartridges, or change your table’s location, or play music louder lol. And don’t worry about linear tracking arms, or 12" arms for now (or ever). A good 9" - 10" rigid bearing arm is fantastic.

2. Upgrade the cartridge to a next level one. I too started out with an ~$800 MC "high value" cartridge (Benz Glider L2), and it was a GREAT start but the move to an $1800 one (Ortofon Kontrapunkt "c" - older version of the Cadenza Bronze) was quite significant. BUT you must have a tonearm and phono stage that can support the move, and matches extremely well to your chosen cartridge. Your Herron phono stage (I owned one) is WAY beyond the $800 cartridge level, and can be configured to match almost any cartridge in existence - so you’re in great shape there. Some will question whether a table upgrade may be more appropriate than a cartridge, and that’s fair, but I think the Concept is a pretty nice and can handle a better cartridge if you address the tonearm.

Your amp is nice; I had an original Rogue Atlas (non-Magnum) when I did that $1800 cartridge upgrade, so I know you amp section (Cronus is just Atlas plus a simple preamp stage) is good enough to let your source upgrades shine though. In theory you’d be better off with an Atlas Magnum (don’t think the Cronus preamp stage is bypass-able) and a high quality separate tube preamp, but that’s going to probably be much more money than it’s worth for now (i.e. wait until you can do at least a Stereo 100 or M180 level amp with separate preamp).

mulveling, I agree with you about the tonearm but it is no where near as bad as a uni pivot as long as you stay away from the stiffest cartridges. Schroder uses the same design in his Reference arm which has quite a following but, I am with you. I would by his CB arm. 

@mulveling Awesome! Yeah I’ve been thinking about upgrading the tonearm to support a higher end cartridge down the line. I also have been getting some subsonic woofer pumping at louder volumes and I suspect the floating magnet tonearm is part of, or even possibly the entire problem. Thanks for your thoughts, much appreciated. 

When you are trying to upgrade, I think you need to have a clear picture of what you are trying to improve.  Your system looks pretty damn good and, considering everyone here is stabbing in the dark, I would not overlook better speaker cables.  I recently upgraded my speaker cables and they made a profound change for the better to my Harbeth P3.  Bigger, fuller and just plain better-sounding to my ears.  In some systems, cables make little difference, but they can make a huge difference in others.  I have experienced both situations..  Good luck in any case.