Analog Front End Next Upgrade

I have a 1m long Cardas Iridium Phono cable from table to phono, and 0.5m Cardas Iridium from phono to headphone amp.  

I'm using a PS-Audio dectet power conditioner and Pangea AC-14SE power cords to power the phono stage and headphone amplifier.

Any experience with Audio Sensibility cables?  They seem to be a popular recommendation in the VPI forum.

Well, here’s the thing, I can’t really complain about anything in particular with my current setup. I seem to be stuck in this perpetual upgraditis, and I’m wondering what is my weak link now.

Within the past 6 months I’ve upgraded my phono stage from musical surroundings Phonomena II+ to Black Cube SE II, which noticeably lowered the noise floor and improved soundstage focus and detail retrieval. I upgraded from a Hana SL to the MC Scheu SL, and noticed vast improvement in timbre. Most recently I traded out an aries scout for the vpi prime. The improvement was most noticeable in less distortion which resulted in smoother sound and eliminated the last bit of tracing errors I had at the inner grooves.

I think after all these positive upgrades, I want more, and wondering what else I could improve. Would moving to Cardas cygnus cabling offer any improvements (assuming my gear is resolving enough)? I’m also considering trading up to a Lehmann Decade because I think the phono stage may be my weak link. Is there a rule of thumb for order of precedence with analog front end gear?

inna, I agree with your assessment about upgrading the phono first.  I'm going to look into exchanging the Black Cube SE II for the Decade.  I think there is more to be had with the Scheu and Prime, and the phono will help to squeeze out that last bit of performance.  

After the phono upgrade, I'm going to look into moving up the Cardas line to Clear Cygnus cables. 

Update:  I ordered the Lehmann Decade Phono Stage!  I understand the push for a tubed phono stage.  I'm currently using a Hovland HP-100 tubed with NOS pre-war yugo 12AX7s.  This setup is for headphone use only, so I feel that SS is probably my best bet.  Vinyl through headphones is pretty amazing, but it takes so much more effort to perfect it, IMO anyway.  I'm hoping the new decade phono stage will open up more detail and throw a bigger image.  The black cube SE II was already pretty damn quiet so its hard to imagine improving that parameter.  I think I will change out my cables next.  That should set me up to make a cartridge upgrade a couple years from now.

@raymonda Thank you.  I'm not quite sure what separates the Scheu SL from the Benz ACE SL.  There's also not much press on the Scheu SL cartridge so its hard to know how it compares to other carts in the $1500 price point. I've owned an ACE many years ago and I do think the Scheu is a step above the ACE, but I wish I knew what Scheu does to differentiate their cartridge and justify the price increase.

From that perspective I do feel like my cartridge is a bit of an unknown quantity, and I'm looking forward to seeing if a more resolving phono stage like the Lehmann Decade will bring more performance out of my table/cartridge combo.