Speakers or Turntable upgrade


I've been bitten by the upgrade bug.  It's amazing how a small initial thought can snowball.  I found a Clearaudio MM cartridge I forgot I had.  It's been sitting in a drawer for 10 years due to upgrading the cartridge out of the box on my Clearaudio Concept TT.  My thought was to get a cheap TT to mount the cartridge for my office system.

That turned into finding a good deal on a Rega Planar 2 with an ND cartridge.  My other Turntable is a Rega Planar 3 with 2M Bronze.  The Planar 2 got sold which led me to a Planar 3 with an Exact 2, but I didn't want the same TT.  That led to looking at the Planar 6 and 8.  I came to the conclusion that the 6 wouldn't be a big enough jump so I'm looking at a Planar 8 with ND7.  Planar 8 would be my main rig and the Planar 3 would go to the office system.

I'm now looking at $3500 and started thinking if my money would be served better by upgrading my speakers instead.  Sorry for the meandering post.

My system:

Rega Planar 3, Rotel RC 150, Rotel RB-1080, HTPC with DAC.

Speakers: Paradigm Studio 100 v2.  and SVS SB3000 subwoofer

I listen to classic rock, new rock, 80's rock, and metal.  I listen at fairly robust volumes.

Am I better off sticking that money into speakers than upgrading my TT? 

 

 

mustangjeff

Just my opinion, but since I’ve just gone through my 11th set of speakers looking to achieve that perfect sound I can tell you this. New speakers and I mean modern speakers are going to sound much different then the older classics or than what you’ve been listening to for years. Probably going to be a lot more revealing and depending on the quality of your source material you may not like what you hear.      
Keep in mind much of that classic rock stuff was not recorded very well and new speakers will not fix bad recordings. I can’t stress enough take your time, listen to as many speakers as you can with your vinyl or whatever music source you use. If you can “in home trial”, even better. Just realize the honeymoon of new speakers can be short lived and can have you listening to music that sounds good on your speakers but not be the type of music you like.  

Do you like the way your system sounds? No way I can put myself in your place, but if you are happy with the presentation, then upgrading your turntable, and especially your cartridge will reveal more of the substance of the music within your existing system, providing a better version of what you already have. If you change speakers, there is a real possibility it will lead to additional changes as you try to get everything in harmony again, or not, you just don’t know until you start down that path. If you want to keep things familiar but with more incite, upgrade your turntable/cartridge. If you want to embark on a new and perhaps different adventure in sound, get new speakers, but start saving for the next upgrade afterwards. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I'll be honest, I've never been in love with the Paradigm Reference Studio 100's.  I got them used back in 2018 because my Ex Wife decided to make me pick between a pair of Vandersteen 2CE Sigs or my upgraded Klipsch Chorus II's.  I kept the Klipsch, and she took the Vandersteen's.  Everything has a story.

The Paradigms were the best thing available on Craigslist at the time which is how I ended up with them.  They've always been a bit fatiguing to me.  Some people say that about Klipsch, but I can listen the Chorus II's all day long.  It's probably due to them having new Crites diaphragms in the tweeter and midrange horns as well as completely new Crites crossovers with film caps.

One thing I will say about the Paradigms is that they play LOUD effortlessly being driven by my 200 watt/channel Rotel.  I do like to crank it up, but not usually to that level.  I remember liking the Vandersteen, and I think they would be good now that I have an SB3000 sub to pair with them.  I'm just not sure I want to go back to that 360 degree wrap around sock.  Our home has pets and I remember the Vandersteen being hair and dust magnets.