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$ 2500 -- Best Way to Spend It Today ?

Okay, here's a great hypothetical question, which may indeed help me reach a purchase decision. I've got a $ 2500.00 total budget for a new analog front end. What's the best way to spend the dinero ?

..... $ 1500 for a new rig and $ 1000 for a whole lot of new records.......or $ 2500 for a new rig, and enjoy (maximally, of course) the LP's that I already own ?

An example of the $ 1500 front end would be a Music Hall MMF 7.1/Goldring Eroica H or a Rega P5/Dyna 10x5. A possible $ 2500 front end would be a VPI Scout/Benz Ace H.

..........Let's hear what you think, and then recommend a great $ 1500 front end and then a great $ 2500 front end to get my juices flowing. The cash outlay needs to include table, arm, and cartridge (MM or high output MC, as I want to keep my current phono stage). I'm looking forward to some wonderful suggestions on how to spend the moolah. Thanks, and Happy Listening !!
adam18
learsfool
1,215 posts
 
I bought a P5 not long ago and love it - go for that and spend the rest on a cleaning machine (the cheapest Nitty Gritty is good enough, if you don't mind turning it by hand) and records! Happy listening!
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
keep the money...you have a really nice system. you'd have to blow your budget bigtime for a big improvement. enjoy
piedpiper
753 posts
 
Nice sentiment Jaybo, but really. IMHO, it's a bit extreme to say that $2500 well spent wouldn't yield major improvements.
adam18 OP
670 posts
 
Hey Jaybo......Thanks for the comment. I spent three hours in front of my Vandersteens last night, listening to my upgraded NAD 533 through my Rogue Cronus, thoroughly enjoying Hank Mobley, Dizzy Reese, Lee Morgan, old Led Zep, and acoustic Grateful Dead. When my wife saw my ear-to-ear grin brought on by my loving all the music, she too said "keep the money for now, your system sounds absolutely fantastic just the way it is !!!" I'm starting to think that you and she are both absolutely correct !
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Yeah. Jaybo has a point. Next time I'll check the poster's system link to see what he already has. You have the glass platter upgrade, and I expect that's the Rega RB250 arm, right? With a $99 Goldring Elektra cartridge, I'd say your TT rig is plenty good to show benefits from a higher-res cartridge. Given the smile your current rig puts on your face, you probably want to stick with something similar, just better. That way you don't upset the TT-to-phono stage balance, amount of gain or required capacitance, etc.

So maybe move up to a Goldring 10x2 series cart. They're a big jump in resolution, tracking, and extension, but have about the same output as the Elektra and would make good matches with the same kinds of arms.

i recently swapped out a Denon DL-160 HOMC for a MM Audio Technica AT150MLX, and the difference in the amount of musical information it extracts is not subtle. And your downstream components are up to the task, to say the least.

So I'd say, to hear a significant improvement over your current rig, just try a Goldring 1022 or 1042, or an Audio Technica AT150MLX, or an Ortofon 2M Blue or Black. I'm sure other aficionados will chime in with their high output, med-to-high compliance carts as well.

Best of all, this is just a $200-to-600 outlay to realize a significant improvement without losing anything of what you like about your system now. And of course, if you decided to get a better analog rig later, you can migrate the cartridge.
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