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Of Moving Magnets - Step ups - and phono stages

In the process of relocating I've sold off most of my equipment and now it's time to put it back together. My former system contained a C-J Premier 15 phono stage. I used it with a Thorens TD124/RB300 arm/Ortofon Kontrapunkt B and a Rege P3/Rega Exact/ Rb300 arm. Today I'm left with both table set ups and a Bottlehead Seduction phono stage. The b-Head works great with the Rega Exact cart. but doesen't offer enough kick for the Ortofon.
Which direction would you guys go with a budget of $2000.00
1) MC step up amp? The idea of another link in the chain kinda bugs me.
2) Buy a used phono stage that can handle both? These carts have a fair amount of mileage on them.
3) Upgrade to a really nice new MM cart? Please make suggestions.
The rest of the system at this time is a TAD-60 amp w/volume control and Oswalds Mill Mini speakers.
Thanks in advance for your opinions.
schiss
Post removed 
rccc
216 posts
 
For a real performance improvement over the BH you'll have to move way up the food chain. For $2K used you would have some good choices but an sut for far less will make your seduction sing. Bobs devices are reasonable as are K&K. After trying many (including the exalted S&B and audio note) I settled on Silk and put them in double shielded cases I made myself. You can get them in nice Silk cases as well. If you get a nice sut you like you can use it with any MM pre you may end up with. Spend the rest on records or cartridge upgrade. Youll find many opinions here on MM carts, I have both MM and MC and wouldnt want to be limited to either. For MM I have a Virtuoso which was a great match with my Seduction.
heyraz
177 posts
 
Can't use a SUP with a MM. I asked that one a couple of weeks ago and got some pretty technical reasons why not.
Look for "Can I use a step up transformer with low output MM"
in this analog forum
rccc
216 posts
 
Heyraz, you use an SUT in front of an MM phono stage to bring an MC low output cart up to MM level.
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