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Substantial Upgrade

Longtime lurker, first-time poster:  My wife and I got into vinyl about five years ago and have been steadily collecting records ever since.  We love spinning records, and listen to a lot of jazz, pop, and classical music.  We started modestly with an AT LP120, and are lucky to have a friend who just happened to have a pair of Totem Rainmakers sitting in his garage collecting dust, which he gave to us, along with a TSC sub and all cables.  We have decided it is time to invest in our own system.

I've done a lot of research and read numerous threads on this topic here and elsewhere, and we've narrowed our choices down to two tables: the Rega P6 (in the $1500 price range) or the Feickert Volare (in the $3500 bracket).  Either table I'll be getting the Hana ML.  For phonostage, we've narrowed down to the MoFi UltraPhono or the Sutherland KC Vibe mk ii.  I'm hoping I can solicit opinions here on these choices and, in particular, whether the Feickert is going to make a difference for our use case.  Finally, I recognize that the speakers might be outclassed by these upgrades, but we are separately planning to move in the next year and I want to wait and see where our new listening room is going to be before investing in new speakers.    

Thanks in advance. 
bruinuclafan
guy-incognito's avatar
guy-incognito
169 posts
 
I have a Rega Planar 8, Apheta 3 and Aria (mk 2) phono stage. My dad landed on the Planar 6, Ania Pro, and Aria phono stage. We are both very happy with our purchases. We like the simple set up and how well the Rega components work together. I can't offer a comparison with your other options but we are content. 
rockyboris
40 posts
 
Opinions are nice and plentiful but I own the P6, buy the Dr. Feickert. If you get serious you will eventually want to upgrade the platter, sub platter and tonearm, $2000.00. It will then sound almost as good as the Volare but you’ll never get your money out of the mods.
 I love my P6 but I bought an Oracle Delphi for my main tt my second choice was the Feickert.

Enjoy the vinyl
deadhead1000's avatar
deadhead1000
711 posts
 
I just got the P6 with their MC for $2300. No set up issues at all and sounds great out of the box. If I listened to more vinyl,  like it sounds you do, I would have gone one step up, such as say the P8 or 10 or the Doctor with the higher priced Hana MC, which will run you around $5k. Just don’t let the $5k take away from your future speaker purchase.
I owned the rainmakers for years. Loved them. 
p05129
483 posts
 
Glad that miller carbon has left the thread, now you will get valuable responses. The sprout 100 is a nice piece especially for your totems. I have this same integrated in my office.
If you are just starting out, get a decent TT with a decent MM cartridge and use the builtin phono preamp in the sprout 100 until you decide what your new room will be like in the future. If your room is much larger, you will be upgrading your amp to maybe separates or another larger integrated that has a phono preamp builtin.
If you get any of the tables suggested above, you are limited by the tonearms on the quality of the cartridge you can use on them. If this is a starter system, then by all means get any of the TT's mentioned above with the Hana cartridge, you probably won't hear a difference between these tt's. Later on, if you want to upgrade to say a $3000 or more cartridge, you won't be using any of the TT's tonearms listed above. I have had over a dozen TT's over 5 decades and each 1 cost more and the later TT's used another manufacturers tonearm.
andrewkelley
271 posts
 
Marantz TT-15s1. $1500, looks great, and comes with a great cartridge. I think its a steal. 
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