If you had $12k / £10k to upgrade your analogue front-end...

Since you're obviously in the UK, I would absolutely demo two or three Nottingham Analogue (Dais or better).

@whart  is right - it is very difficult to demo the analogue front end, because it's not always clear what you are hearing (cartridge, arm, table, and especially how well they have been set up, not to mention phono) but, and it's a big but, sometimes you get lucky and find a combination that's head and shoulders above the competition. That's how I ended up with Nottingham.

How good was it? Until I built my DIY air bearing table, it was the best I had heard at sane prices. But you can definitely improve on the arm, at least you can if those of 20 years ago are still representative. The most important things in an arm are rigidity, low resonance, and adjustability.

Remember, no setup without adjustability, preferably adjustability on the fly.

Pair that with a Dais and then you have a table upon which even a big Koetsu is not wasted. Then you can ask to home demo a phono stage to suit.

At least, that is how I would proceed. YMMV. Good luck!

@cainullah Is the internal phono stage good - I think so. I used to own McIntosh C2600 with an internal tube phono stage and preferred the 390. 
 

I don’t feel the need to upgrade the phono stage at this point - I appreciate the simplicity. 

reading some of the comments, I really started to wonder how much difference the phono stage will make. My understanding from what I am reading is that it yields the littlest gain in the chain (say: 5K on a phone stage, 5K on a TT vs. 2K phono stage, 8K TT - the latter being a much better allocation)

But that seems the opposite to what commenters say here.

Then, I am also clueless about the best allocation of the TT components and I don’t care as I have no plans to mess with them. Rega’s choices are fine for me (but it seems to be arm/cartridge/plinth, platter?)

I think what I am trying to say: it's not an Olympic event where winning is everything and pouring millions into Michael Phelps' diet will pay off by that .1 seconds at the end.

It's just a bunch of decent components that will (should) do their part for 1000s and not 10s of 1000s (unless you have a giant concert hall to work with).

I guess that goes against 98% of what's being argued here :)

"Rega P8 (I prefer it to the P10)"

why? I am curious

If you heard the P8 and P10 compared in a store demo you would almost certainly prefer the P10. It sounds bigger, more dramatic, more detailed and more dynamic. But if you live with the two for a while, it is another matter.

I owned both the RP8 and the RP10 at the same time, and then the P8 and P10. I ended up selling the RP10 and the P10 for the same reason. The ceramic platter gives the P10 a slightly brittle, slightly bright sound, and notes seem to be fore-shortened. There is a sense in which musical notes do not develop the full range of harmonics, and it sounds oddly artificial and fatiguing. This was with a range of cartridges, using the same phono stage. The P8 sounds smaller, less dramatic, less detailed - but more "normal", IMO more musical and engaging in the long term.

The arm on the P10 is better. I ended up putting a Cardas re-wired RB2000 on my P8, and with an external PSU instead of the Rega wall wart, and this to my ears sounds excellent.

But I should add that the P8 is not my main turntable, which is a Lenco-based PTP Solid 9 with Audio Origami PU7 arm.