I think you know who the weakest link in your set up is. For your wife's needs, your system is perfect.
What's the weakest link in my stereo set up? I live in a townhome, so limited on space.
90% of my time is used listening to records. The other 10% is used by my wife and I to just stream TIDAL or Spotify.
I live in a three story townhome. High ceilings. Not wide rooms, but long.
I would love to be able to use a room just for the stereo, but I cannot. I like staying married, which also means I cannot turn our guest bedroom into just a music-listening adventure room. So, the stereo is in my living room on the first floor. This also means I don’t have room for floor standing speakers.
Focal 906 bookshelf speakers
Technics SL-1210 Mk II (modded out by KAB USA)
Currently using a Nagaoka MP-150 cartridge
McIntosh MP100 phono amp
Cambridge EVO 150 stereo amplifier, entertainment hub, streamer, etc (my wife uses this a lot to stream Spotify while going about the house)
Topping A70Pro headphone amplifier
I’m going to assume people are going to say either my turntable or my speakers. Would it be wise to upgrade my Technics to one of the higher end models? I really love the ease of using this little beast of a player. I know it’s known as "the DJ turntable", but it wasn’t made to be one -- it just became that.
The Focals are nice too, and they were also bought new for less than a grand.
(Also, sorry if this is subjective as a question. I’m new to a lot of this. I hope something stands out as an obvious room to upgrade no matter what your tastes are.
Also, I’ve been selling some of the equipment that my late father had, and while doing so I’ve been getting interested in upgrading the system I cobbled together years ago. And no, for emotional and attachment reasons, I didn’t want to keep things that he owned.)
Budget ~$2K
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Enjoy the music.if your cart is used alot you may want to change.the turntable is good been around for decades and proven.focal are great speakers even the older models.these days you can dsp your system and room.have fun keep the spouse happy you know happy wife happy life enjoy the experiment.see if there is an audio club in your town to swap equipment.crutchfield gives 60 days and upscale audio may as well on speakers. |
Agree with sub recommendation; for your budget you can't do much of an improvement in your TT setup. Cambridge is (IMO) a weak link, but since it serves multiple functions, may not be able to improve within your budget. Let you wife select a nice area rug; can help tame a somewhat live room and give her input into the room aesthetic. |
Spotify in NG compressed files buy a copy dedicated dac or much better dac streamer combo buy a sub for your speakers ,a$600 Svs pro 1000 with a nice remote app To adjust ,cables, power chords for the money Pangea sig,MK2 Wireworld Equinox would be perfect for your setup, very good quality reasonable price |
Focal speakers only go down to 55 Hz ... so @travelinjack is probably the best suggestion; your TT set up is commendable; upgrades with cart et cetera will be marginal compared to opening up the low end! Switch the Cambridge out on next upgrade as @fatdaddy2 correctly identified ... plenty of great options await Good luck! |
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