What is your front end ?

@oddiofyl  excellent system indeed, which is your favorite front end analog or digital ?

No question, my favorite and most enjoyable source now overall is my streamer.  It sounds plenty good, and constantly discovering great new music — and much of it in hi res — has me more excited about this hobby than I’ve ever been.  Playing my own familiar stuff, while certainly still enjoyable, has lost a lot of its relative luster when I can be like a kid in a candy shoppe every day with streaming.  Seriously, it’s like going to the record store and buying something new and exciting every day — how can you beat that?  And while I do still spin the occasional disk, I find it’s become increasingly rare yet I’m still very happy and grateful to have both.

@soix  passion, grace and fire.

Thanks Sabih !    The Aurender with my DAC is a strong argument in favor of an all digital system, but I think if that turntable had a better cartridge I'm sure it would better digital on really great recordings.  I have a number of records that sound really good even with a modestly priced cartridge.   I prefer quite a few over their digital counterpart.    But for most listening sessions,  nothing beats a good streamer and DAC for me.  

I want to go up a few notches with my next cartridge.  It's hard with cartridge choice because it's not something that is easily A/B'd.   I have heard good things about ZYX , Hana , and Dynavector in the $1200 or so range.   It's not that the Bronze doesn't sound great, it does but I think that table deserves a little better.

My daughter is getting married next Sept so I am in a holding pattern for a little while.   At some point I will bump it up a few notches with respect to cartridge