$1,500 phono upgrade worth it?


I'm having the itch to upgrade my phono stage. I currently have a Rega P6,  Ania Pro cart, and Rega Fono MC stage. I find that the stage is generally pretty noisy with a noticeable hiss. The table can't be grounded in stock configuration from Rega, so I don't think it's that. I do have a dedicated line run from my panel to the plug. I don't think it's picking up any interference. The phono is run into a Primaluna Evo 300 integrated; which is dead silent when streaming.

I guess what I'm trying to figure out, is the $1,500 figure going to make a noticeable difference? Do I even need to go that high? Given my current configuration, I can't see stepping up much higher than that. At some point I'm only going to get so much out of the ancillary components to justify going way above them with the stage.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! Cheers and happy holidays!!

ecrotty

Showing 2 responses by femoore12

It is possible to have a system with high efficiency speakers with no hiss or hum. I have a tube pre-amp, tube amps, and horn speakers. I have no hum or hiss when using my system. It is dead quiet. I cannot hear anything when my turntable is running before placing the needle on the vinyl. I do have everything plugged into one power conditioner. I did replace the stock turntable power supply with an SBooster Linear power supply. 

The only time I had hum was when I had a speaker cable that failed at the connection. It got bent when I moved my amp and the solder failed at the speaker connector. I noticed the hum immediately since it was so unusual. 
 

Perhaps it’s a cable from the turntable to the MC stage or to the integrated amp? Is it possible to use a different set of cables between these components? Also, that MC stage does show a ground connection for the turntable. If the MC stage uses a wall-wart for power that could be causing the noise. Those are notoriously noisy.