I would buy a new rega 25 with 300 tonearm and elyse cartridge new for $1275 for the turntable. The rosewood is very nice looking. I have the 25 w/600 and super elyse and I think it's great. I have read that for low cost phono stages, some good ones are: the rotel ($200 new-don't know the part), McCormack phono stage ($600 new), or the lehman black cube (600-700ish new). I see the mccormacks go used for $300 here and there. The lehman is a small box that does not need it's own audio shelf. Check and see if your bryston preamp can have a phono stage added to it.
Best Turntable at $1,500? Please Advise.
Dear Analog Veterans, I'm taking the plunge, and getting a turntable, following numerous disappointements with DACs (Bel Canto & MSB included) and the digital domain in general. I am new to the turntable arena, and would value advice from any analog savvy Audiogoners out there. I'm thinking of spending somewhere in the region of $1,500 (for table, arm, cartridge and phono stage) but would also value structuring my purchase so that there are good upgrade paths available in the near term (I could be willing to spend another $1,000 about four months from now). I would be most interested in getting something used on Audiogon, so if you know of any good deals in this pricepoint, please feel free to share. I could also consider upgrading my preamp to one with a phono stage (sensible I think). I hope my budget is enough to get me started (let me know if I really need to spend more though). Sound quality is, of course, of paramount importance, but if the table is visually appealing that would be great (more girlfriend friendly :-) Thanks in advance for your advice. My system is as follows: Bryston BP20 Preamp, Bryston 3B-ST Power Amp, B&W Nautilus 805 speakers, Stealth TR silver and PC Premier copper speaker cables (true birewire), Cardas Golden Cross, Kimber KCAG and Homegrown Audio Silver Lace Interconnects.