Preamp predicament

Dear Ho72: Unfortunately I don't have experience with any of the audio products you own other than your cartridge that IMHO is a good one.

+++++ " And let it be understood that I'm not really an audiophile, I just want to listen to music reproduced in a way that... *takes me there*, for lack of a better description. " +++++

no any analog rig I know is a " plug and play " rig. There are some critical factors to achieve a decent quality performance with an analog source ( cartridge. ): cartridge pin connectors perfectly clean, hedashell pin connectors prefectly clean, the best headshell wires you can afford ( Ikeda S-50 are great ones. ), " perfect cartridge set up: overhang, VTA/SRA, Azymuth and VTF; you have to " play with these last three parameters till you achieve the best performance from that cartridge, LP's with good cleaning as the cartridge stylus and now that we are talking of " cleaning " you need an electrical clean audio system supply.

In the other side almost any home audio system romm needs some kind of treatment for a better integration ( better quality sound reproduction. ) between the room and the audio system.
Here I'm talking of room treatment and speakers/sub " right/precise " position/place in that room. Many times a change in the speakers/sub position makes and help to attain better performance as happen with cartridges when we made a change on VTA/SRA/Azymuth.

The right and precise whole audio system set up is always critical to " takes me there " and who cares about always receive great rewards!!

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Ho72 , I think keeping the Zero,s is a good idea.. Try and get yourself a used NHT sub from the same line meant for use with them. You will really hear some of the great potential from such a small monitor . They do image well and voices are wonderfull with them. After reading this thread and posting to it earlier I brought my Zeros into the livingroom . I hooked up a set of Bryston Powerpack 120.s(3b monos basically) I used for hometheater a while back to my Cary SLP 98 pre and the zeros to the brystons. Played some Vynil and they sound amazing. I then used the bass drivers in my NHT 3.3,s biwired with the zeros to confirm how well they would sound with good musical bass. When the time comes to move into smaller digs I would have no qualms whatsoever of the Zeros with a used NHT Sub or some thing simular. I,m quite enjoying how well they do sound and hearing them again. Look at a sub then after you have a chance to hear how well they sound maybe later a graham slee phono section added to your aux, inputs and your good to enjoy with minimal cost. The Arcam is a nice piece and would cost you more than 300 to beat it. Cheers.

Dear Ho72: Other important factor is cartridge the load
impedance/capacitance, different impedance/capacitance
values affect/tame the " flavor " of the sound
reproduction, you can try changes here. Even you can try
that cartridge with a different headshell, this could
improve what you are hearing today.

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Long ago I had a Sony 400 disc changer. The sound is truly awful. Get an outboard DAC, even a cheap one, and you'll be amazed by the improvement.

As for your vinyl, I doubt that anything in the $300 range is going to be a drastic improvement over the Arcam phono stage. So I would recommend that you try to optimize the setup of your current table (VTF, VTA, etc.) and maybe work with speaker placement if that's an option.

Cheers.

I searched Vinyl Asylum and found some generally good comments about the Alpha 9's phono stage, so I'm leaning toward other upgrades. In no particular order...

The Zero's will stay until I get a proper sub, hopefully an NHT that will blend well with my setup. If I can't find a NHT sub, perhaps I'll look at a Hsu.

I have not experimented at all with cart loading, and I probably won't until the new sub is in place.

I will revisit the turntable setup. The current alignment took me the better part of one evening, but since it was my first time it would not hurt to recheck everything.

As far as speaker placement goes, I have some latitude with the sub but virtually none with the Zeros, which I have placed at about ear level (when seated), about 10 feet in front of me and about 6 feet apart.

Thanks for all the suggestions and insights. That's why I posted here.