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$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 1 response by sbank

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sbank
3,382 posts
 

@dill +1 

@ecrotty Unfortunately this situation isn't so straightforward, as it should be. RFI, including FM signals often find their way into low level analog signals in phono stages. Your hiss could be from unoptimized gain or load setting as Dill mentiioned. But it could also be from your analog system acting as a low level antenna and pulling in RFI or simiilar. Grounding can impact it too.

Then if those issues are eliminated as the cause, yeah, maybe the Rega is noisier than you'd like. Borrowing a better phono stage would go a long way to narrowing things down. OTOH, if you bought from a local dealer or have a friend with a turntable, you could try bringing the Rega to them and seeing if you still hear the same issue. 

I'd suggest those other potential causes first, and consider the upgrade after. Cheers,

Spencer

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