I did exactly this in 2022. I went with a Technics 1200G/Hana ML and Sutherland 20/20 with LPS. The turntable cartridge were good, but I can’t say the same for the Sutherland in my system. After 40-50 hours of use I returned the Sutherland and upgraded my analog. The turntable/arm/cartridge retail for $5200 or so. My upgraded turntable/arm/cartridge retail around 20K. The phono preamp $16K, but purchased phono stage used for much less. First, the phono stage selection was critical. My Audionet is very musical with lots of detail. It sounds like a fast balanced tube phono stage. I’m less certain that the table arm were an upgrade, but the new table/arm was more than twice the cost of the Technics. The Hana ML is quite musical and the upgraded cartridge was a bit less than your budget. For this difference in price the MSL cartridge is very fast and detailed compared to the Hana, but the Hana is a much better value. So, I believe that the Sutherland was what I disliked about my initial setup, but I will be selling or trading the Technics/Hana. Some great suggestions above from members with much more experience than myself.
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.