Analog upgrade time


Alrighty Minions of stereo nirvana, here's one I am struggling with the most. I need to upgrade my analog equipment (you guessed it digital side is now creeping past analog side). I have a Rega P6 turntable and a basic Mofi phonostage going into Audio Research LS17SE preamp and to AudioResearch Ref 75 amp. Yes I like tubes. Sadly I do not know the name of the cartridge company.  I want to upgrade cartridge and phono linestage as a set that match well with each other and are well suited for a tube system. I prefer MC vs MM.  Thoughts please. This is the one area that is my blind side. Thanks in advance.

milo0812

Definitely the phono stage first. I was holding my turntable back (a lot) until I got  an Audio Research PH8. I now have an Audio Research Reference 3. I highly recommend moving to in between these two end points in Audio Research.

I have been upgrading my phono stages since the early ‘80’s, several horrible sounding, highly recommended, budget phono stages, then finally the Audio Research PH2, PH2SE, PH3SE… PH8.

 

 

@audphile1 thanks so much for the info about the Suttherland 20/20. I spent some time perusing the website. Turns out they are local for me. I rang Ron and chatted about what I'm looking to do and he had some good thoughts. He is going to let me preview a few things (little Loco and 20/20). Great suggestion thanks!

@ghdprentice I was leaning towards trying the phono pre first, your advice dovetails with that. Appreciate it. I think previewing the Sutherland and the ARC is likely my next step. I'm trying to find a sweet spot, somewhere between 3-5K.

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I would definitely be looking for a used in that price range. Buy a used Audio Research or other top notch audiophile component and you can get really outstanding performance and high reliability.