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 2 responses by rossb

rossb
183 posts
 

Rega P8 (I prefer it to the P10)

Rega Aura phono stage (among the best I have heard at any price)

Ortofon Cadenza Bronze

 

 

 

 

rossb
183 posts
 

"Rega P8 (I prefer it to the P10)"

why? I am curious

 

If you heard the P8 and P10 compared in a store demo you would almost certainly prefer the P10. It sounds bigger, more dramatic, more detailed and more dynamic. But if you live with the two for a while, it is another matter.

I owned both the RP8 and the RP10 at the same time, and then the P8 and P10. I ended up selling the RP10 and the P10 for the same reason. The ceramic platter gives the P10 a slightly brittle, slightly bright sound, and notes seem to be fore-shortened. There is a sense in which musical notes do not develop the full range of harmonics, and it sounds oddly artificial and fatiguing. This was with a range of cartridges, using the same phono stage. The P8 sounds smaller, less dramatic, less detailed - but more "normal", IMO more musical and engaging in the long term.

The arm on the P10 is better. I ended up putting a Cardas re-wired RB2000 on my P8, and with an external PSU instead of the Rega wall wart, and this to my ears sounds excellent.

But I should add that the P8 is not my main turntable, which is a Lenco-based PTP Solid 9 with Audio Origami PU7 arm.

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