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New phono preamp or tonearm?

Hi,

Presently own a ClearAudio Master Solution with a Tecnoarm from Michell and a Benz Wood M2, phono pre is an ARC PH3. I am in the process of upgrading my phono pre and tonearm and I was wondering which I should do first, arm or pre! Short list for tone arm is the Graham Phantom II, phono pre I will be looking at the ARC PH7, Nagra VPS, Aesthetix Rhea, EAR 88BP and Artemis Lab PH1. I think I will be keeping the Technoarm for a second mono cartridge, so some phono pre are better suited for my purpose than others (2 inputs).

Current system consists of an ARC Ref3 pre, ARC VS110 amp, SF Cremona speakers, YTER interconnects and Shunyata Orion speaker cables. I listen mostly to jazz.

Thanks for reading
redsectora
redsectora OP
9 posts
 
Wow.....I had forgotten about this thread. Anyways thanks for your responses guys but I finally went for an IO Sig that I found slightly used (6 months old) at a local dealer in early December. A new IO was out of my league, forget about the Sig, but I guess they were afraid of being stuck with this used one so they were selling it for about the same price as a new PH7. I really lucked out. I compared it with both my PH3 and PH7 over a week’s time; the IO Sig is not in the same league as the ARC's. Way more information, presence and micro dynamics, I guess it was love at first sight.... It complements my ARC/Cremona setup so well I was floored.

As recommended by Glenn at Aesthetix and Andy at Vintage Audio I since replaced the 4 12AX7LP's in the first stage with 4 NOS RCA 60's 12AX7. As well the original 6SN7 were replaced by 2 NOS 6SN7, man does it sound sweet. First time tube roller, made a believer in me. BTW the original tubes in the IO as still in new condition.

In all fairness I don't see why I should change my tonearm or anything now for that matter, that’s how amazing it now plays. Now I just listen and relax (my wife even noticed I stopped analysing the music), isn't it what it's all about.....


Again thanks for the help guys, really appreciate it
oilmanmojo
472 posts
 
I recently upgraded my phono stage from a rotel and Vandersteen combination to a zyx artisan. The rest of my system is zyx universe lomc (Silver), Maplenoll signature ariadne with modified armwand, Marantz sr9300, Klipschorns. I was expecting a significant improvement from upgrading and was not disappointed. The depth of the sound increased dramatically. It was like the rotel compressed everything especially the midrange and highs. I did not recognize this when i had the rotel until i borrowed a friends tube phonostage. I started to go with a tube, but had the opportunity to pick up the artisan at a good price. I have a/b compared the two and it is not even close. I know a tonearm can also be a good upgrade (reason i modified the stock maplenoll arm) but i did not get nearly the boost as the higher quality phono preamp. Not sure of others experience with the zyx artisan, but i have been very impressed with its performanc compared to the price. I would imagine that there is some synergy with the universe cartridge also since the designer was the same.
countingbackwards
138 posts
 
Don't know too much about the ARC phonos, but from everything I've read they seem to be top-notch.

I would presume that a better tonearm will be a noticeable improvement. A few years back, I tried a Michell Gyro first with a Tecnoarm and Benz M2, before settling on a Gyro with a Graham 1.5tc (upgraded to 2.2) and Benz L2. The same setup with the Graham arm was far better than with the Tecnoarm. The top end is more open, the bottom end is tighter, and the mids are smoother. There was something I found unnatural about how the highs, mids and bass were held together by the Tecnoarm as compared with the Graham.

Now, I haven't tried the Clearaudio table or ARC phono stage, but can say for certain that even an older Graham arm seems to hold a Benz wood cartridge better than does a Tecnoarm.
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