Need Help with System

Dan, don't worry about negative votes. Post your honest opinion and let them learn to deal with it. It's not your problem, it's theirs. You'll get over the "shock" of seeing negatives REAL quick if you continue to post on this forum. Sean
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hi dan,

ewe *can* get a killer analog rig for $3k if yure willing to buy used - it *will* make a substantial improvement over your current set-up, imho. i upgrade my rig a while back, & it ran almost exactly $3k. and, the origin-live modded tonearm & dc-motor/power-supply upgrade were purchased brand-gnu.

anyway, my current set-up is an oracle 'table updated to mk-v specs, w/the exception of the motor/powersupply, which is gnu, from origin-live. the tonearm is a brand-gnu fully-modded origin-live rega rb-250 w/vta base. (o-l, btw, sez this tonearm is even better than their fully-modded rb900, which is considered a giant killer, even in its stock form). cartridge is a lyra clavis, brand-gnu re-tip/rebuild from symphonic-line/vandenhul. fono stage is a little-known (in the usa, anyway) german unit, the pentagon ps-3 (retails for ~$1800). this fono-stage was purchased only because i recently upgraded my preamp, & the gnu pre dint have a fono-stage. oh yeah, & i could even get a few bucks back if i ever decide to sell the mint grace 727 tonearm that came w/the oracle when i bought it! ;~)

good luck, doug

Dan, please let me expand on my earlier comment. I believe your existing VPI/Rega setup is capable of very good sound reproduction. To substantially improve upon this setup will require more than your $3k budget, IMO. I still stand by my recommendation that your money is best spent by upgrading your cartridge and paying careful attention to setup. The whole issue of digitizing the phono signal is problematic. The best signal path is nearly always the simplest signal path. If your analog rig was substantially upgraded, I believe the improvements would be negated by the subsequent digital processing. I could be wrong. One area where digital processing could actual help analog playback is in RIAA equalization. I wonder if a digital implementation of the RIAA curves could counter balance the degradation resulting from the A/D process. Good luck!

while i'm not a big fan of the current redbook-cd-standard for digital playback (i tink winyl is *much* better), i'd be surprised if the dcs a/d conwerter, w/its 24/192 sampling-rate isn't as good a a top-line analog fono-stage. foregoing the add-on fono-stage wooda reduced my system's price to $2400. and, to disagree w/onhwy61 & doug28450, while i tink the vpi jr is an excellent 'table, i must humbly submit my opinion that an oracle mk-v w/origin-live dc motor/power supply *is* in fact, a substantial improvement...

regards, doug s.

Thanks to all that have replied so far, and thank you again for keeping an open mind. Doug and Doug S. I agree that a full-blown analog rig would probably sound better than a digitized RIAA. Even dCS says that true analog buffs might want to keep their phono preamp. I don't know how it will sound either, but I am assuming that an analog signal sampled at 24bits at 192 kHz should be a huge improvement over one sampling using 16 bits at 44.1 kHz. dCS is using the same technology in their professional grade A/D player and it can be argued they are the best of the best in that regard.

Doug S I am also not a huge fan of the Redbook CD playback - that is why I purchased the dCS gear. :-) But what is nice about this whole setup is that I can incrementally improve it without giving up anything in the digital rig. I can add a phono stage and "sample" it at 24/192 or I can purchase a killer pre-amp (with a different budget) and feed the analog outs of the dCS D/A into the pre. The preamp would have to be top notch, though...

As far as which is better – updating the table, the stylus, or the arm, well that is what I need you folks for. Keep the suggestions coming. I appreciate all who have commented so far. Cheers - Dan