2. analog
  3. 181933-179481

If you had $12k / £10k to upgrade your analogue front-end...

Hi all,

I am upgrading my system in my listening room bit-by-bit. This room is for focused listening of music only. No movies. In the future I will be looking looking to upgrade my analogue front-end and am thinking of a budget of around $12k / £10k for a turntable, tonearm, cart and phono stage/pre-amp. I listen to all sorts of music from electronic, bass-heavy vinyl, jazz, hip-hop, rock (new and old), ambient (Cinematic Orchestra, Nils Frahm etc...) and lots of soul/funk type tracks. So quite varied.

If you had $12k/£10k to spend, what combination of turntable, tonearm, cart and phone stage/pre-amp would you go for? I'm looking for suggestions to help with my research. I'm unsure what the balance should be between them. For example, should I go for a Rega Planar 10 with Aphelion 2 cart (£6,840) and give myself just over £3k to spend on a phono stage. Or spend less on the cart (Rega Planar 10 with Apheta 3 is £4,950) and get a more expensive phono stage.

Turntable brands I've been thinking of are Rega, Clearaudio, Technics, VPI, AVID, Thorens, Michell Engineering, VPI, SME etc... but don't really know where to start.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

cainullah

Showing 3 responses by overthemoon

overthemoon
463 posts
 

@cainullah I currently own Moon 390 and M400s and use a Rega P8 with the Ania cartridge and the internal phono stage for the 390.  In my environment I view the digital and analog sources to be very equivalent.  Some recordings are better on vinyl others are better on digital.   

If I was in your place, I'd buy the P10 with Ania pro or Aphelion and invest in an Isolation platform (I have HRS) and live with it for a few months.  This allows you to option to upgrade if you like or simply buy more records because you enjoy the sound.

Good luck in your journey and let us know how it goes.

overthemoon
463 posts
 

@cainullah Is the internal phono stage good - I think so. I used to own McIntosh C2600 with an internal tube phono stage and preferred the 390. 
 

I don’t feel the need to upgrade the phono stage at this point - I appreciate the simplicity. 

overthemoon
463 posts
 

If you are considering the 390 - it's internal phono stage is based on the Moon 810LP (there's many execution differences like dual mono and separate power sources).

I'd add the Boulder 508 phone preamp for your consideration.

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