Thanks for everyone's help so far. I am settling toward an EAR 834P Signature phono stage and possibly the EAR 834L preamp or possibly another line preamp.
Doc, I appreciate your years of experience and understand from where you are coming - and I thank you for the speaker advise. My dilemna is this. The speakers will be one of the only pieces that I will likely buy new. And if I do buy used it will probably be locally to avoid hundreds of shipping pound costs (not to mention damage). As such, they will also likely be the only part of the system for which I will have the luxury of auditioning before purchase. I figure if I get a good match between the front-end, amp, and pre/phono, I will then be able to "sample" a variety of speaker sets before settling on one. Also, it seems that the number of speaker choices available to me within my price range are much larger than the number of pre/phono choices.
Plus, let me ask this. How can I determine if any speakers that I will want will be suitable (recall that I have already an amp and front end but nothing in between)? I suppose I could try to find a place that has MY existing amp AND existing turnable setup and try various speakers with different combinations of pre/phono equipment.
I imagine this brings up the question of whether it is better to find a good balance with amp/pre/phono first, and then select speakers, or to buy speakers one likes on another system's "guts" and then either match that same system or "audition" a variety of electronics component to suit the speakers. I have heard arguments both way.
One thing I have come to realize VERY quickly about this hobby: THERE IS VERY LITTLE TURE CONSENSUS. One persons dream is another's nightmare. One persons perfect approach is anothers throny path. One persons ideal amp is another's end table.... I saw one thread where someone asked people's opinionof the top 10 speakers....about 30 posts yielded 30 different answers.
Don't get me wrong, though. I sincerely appreciate your opinion - both when it does and does not square with my own!
Doc, I appreciate your years of experience and understand from where you are coming - and I thank you for the speaker advise. My dilemna is this. The speakers will be one of the only pieces that I will likely buy new. And if I do buy used it will probably be locally to avoid hundreds of shipping pound costs (not to mention damage). As such, they will also likely be the only part of the system for which I will have the luxury of auditioning before purchase. I figure if I get a good match between the front-end, amp, and pre/phono, I will then be able to "sample" a variety of speaker sets before settling on one. Also, it seems that the number of speaker choices available to me within my price range are much larger than the number of pre/phono choices.
Plus, let me ask this. How can I determine if any speakers that I will want will be suitable (recall that I have already an amp and front end but nothing in between)? I suppose I could try to find a place that has MY existing amp AND existing turnable setup and try various speakers with different combinations of pre/phono equipment.
I imagine this brings up the question of whether it is better to find a good balance with amp/pre/phono first, and then select speakers, or to buy speakers one likes on another system's "guts" and then either match that same system or "audition" a variety of electronics component to suit the speakers. I have heard arguments both way.
One thing I have come to realize VERY quickly about this hobby: THERE IS VERY LITTLE TURE CONSENSUS. One persons dream is another's nightmare. One persons perfect approach is anothers throny path. One persons ideal amp is another's end table.... I saw one thread where someone asked people's opinionof the top 10 speakers....about 30 posts yielded 30 different answers.
Don't get me wrong, though. I sincerely appreciate your opinion - both when it does and does not square with my own!