Forum admiration and requested guidance


My day starts by reading the top post on this site while drinking my morning coffee. I have been a audio enthusiast since the early 1970’s, with my mother playing Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Supremes on vinyl every Saturday morning while growing up.

I’ve always had an analog system to play, and cherish my vinyl collection. It started with my first purchase in 1975 with Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy and expanded over the years.
Advance 47 years later and I’m finally in a point of my life to splurge. My wife and I put three children thru college and she has given the approval to spend a little money for my love of the audio hobby.

Today I have the following system and looking for advice on going up the ladder of sound quality improvement.

- VPI Scout with JMW 9” arm and Hana SL cartridge 
- Elac PPA-2 phono preamp
- Vincent SA-32 preamp
- Parasound A23
- Q Aqoustics 3050i

some of the biggest improvements since building this system have been in the interconnects. I went with the Mogami 2549 interconnects and Canare 4S11 speaker cables. These really opened up the soundstage and appealed to my ears.

My music room is modest at 10 x 18 with 9 foot ceilings. Please don’t advise to enjoy and buy more vinyl. I truly look up to your advise and suggestions on next steps to improve. My budget today is $10k, with an additional $10k in mid 2022.

Thank in advance to feedback from this outstanding group.

vette5451

Showing 1 response by deadhead1000

For your comment about streaming. I was purely vinyl until I got a Bluesound. Yes it’s on the low end of good streaming, but it’s a great way to start and get comfortable with streaming. Start with on and  get to understand streaming. It’s easy to set up and easy to use, then easy to sell and it’ll make upgrading to something better if you get into it easy as you’ll understand streaming. And if you don’t get into streaming, it’s not a huge waste of time and money. 
True, It won’t sound like vinyl, but then nothing does, so does that mean don’t try it? Of course not. Just sharing my experience. 
As for upgrading your current system,  I’d agree with others who say speakers first. That will gain you the biggest bang for your buck.