New preamp or up grade my cartridge and or phono amp?

OP, “…Though I have a friend who went that route and his listening room wound up isolating him from the rest of the household.”

That sounds like a fantastic advantage! That is worth it by itself. 😊 oh, sorry, most audiophiles are recluses… typically the household doesn’t join in, but tell you to turn that off or put on the news. My partner is happy she can send me to my audio room and not subject her to it. She loves music, and comes down to listen for about ten minutes every decade. But there are exceptions.

If this is a step towards a long term hi-end system then I would get the highest quality tube preamp I could afford. This pieces is the heart of the system. From there you can work on source issues. The cartridge is certainly a key piece if your focus is vinyl. I would not spend money adding a better arm to the Rega table. You did not mention speakers. You must be happy with them. They are the most critical part of the chain. 

These days, what we call a preamplifier is a linestage with a bunch of selectable inputs and optionally a balance, phase, or mono control. The linestage usually adds only a little gain to its input signal, which emanates from a phono stage, CDP, or other high level source. In fact, the linestage needs an attenuator to throw away excessive gain from input sources. If the linestage is passive it adds no gain at all. I think it’s no trick to make a very low distortion, wide bandwidth linestage, and linestages need not be hyper-expensive. In fact, the most important part of a linestage is a high quality attenuator.

I think it’s no trick to make a very low distortion, wide bandwidth linestage, and linestages need not be hyper-expensive.

Says the guy with a >$10k preamp, ehem.

@soix  i’m glad you mentioned the Rogue pre-amplifier. I have a down payment on the Rogue Cronos integrated M3, and intend to hook up an Ares M Il phono pre to the Cronos auxiliary.  This will give me an all tube system and allow me to hook up a second turntable to the Cronos phono input. Do you see any shortcomings going this route? I’m a straight vinyl guy, when I sold my car I stopped buying CD’s

After I get squared away with all the accessories I need for this system I’ll start thinking about streaming. Thank you for any input or suggestions you may make