Best investment; cartridge or line stage?


Alrighty fellow hifi aficionados, I tried to find a sub on this topic but failed. Here is my bang for the buck question: assuming money spent on either option will be within spitting distance of each other, where am I likely to get more bang for my buck? By investing in a new line stage or investing in a new cartridge. I am currently running a Sutherland TX vibe line stage with a rega aria cartridge on a rega p6 turntable. Appreciate your input! Current system is McIntosh MA252 integrated, rega p6 tt and Martin Logan Vantages.

milo0812

Showing 1 response by atmasphere

I think this is the wrong question!

The reason is simple: the tonearm's ability to properly track the cartridge far outweighs what cartridge you have. The better the arm is at this, the less differences you'll hear between cartridges assuming they are set up properly.

(FWIW Dept.: I use LPs I recorded as reference. This is a very useful tool which I recommend to anyone who wants to create a proper reference; being there when it was recorded is valuable for knowing what how its supposed to sound.)

Once you have that nailed down properly then I'd look into the phono section. A bit of a teaser tip: if the phono section has a 'cartridge loading' switch for LOMC cartridges, the designer is likely unaware that the 'cartridge loading' resistor is really for the benefit of the phono section rather than doing anything beneficial for the cartridge (it impairs its ability to track properly). There is a simple phenomena at play that you learn about in the first week of electronics at either the technical school level or college level. Something to think about...