Need Help with System


This is my first post in the Analog forum so have patience. Looking to get back into Analog sometime this year or early next so I am looking for ideas from you seasoned analog junkies out there. I have a "beginners" rig from AudioAdvisor - HW19 Jr with RB300 and a now defunct Blue Point Special cartridge. The phono pre is/was the “VAC in the Box” with the upgraded power supply. This was going into a Golden Tube SEP preamp. After extensive upgrades the front end is now all dCS gear (digital inputs only). I will be most likely be getting the Grieg (an upgrade to the Purcell with phono and analog inputs) from dCS when it comes out later this year. So for now the analog rig sits idle. I have about 350 albums in storage and would like to listen to them again. My budget for the entire analog rig (up to the Grieg) would be about 2-3 K total – new or used.

PS – No - I am not going to sell the dCS gear so don’t ask…. :-)

Cheers, Dan
dan2112

Showing 2 responses by sedond

hi dan,

ewe *can* get a killer analog rig for $3k if yure willing to buy used - it *will* make a substantial improvement over your current set-up, imho. i upgrade my rig a while back, & it ran almost exactly $3k. and, the origin-live modded tonearm & dc-motor/power-supply upgrade were purchased brand-gnu.

anyway, my current set-up is an oracle 'table updated to mk-v specs, w/the exception of the motor/powersupply, which is gnu, from origin-live. the tonearm is a brand-gnu fully-modded origin-live rega rb-250 w/vta base. (o-l, btw, sez this tonearm is even better than their fully-modded rb900, which is considered a giant killer, even in its stock form). cartridge is a lyra clavis, brand-gnu re-tip/rebuild from symphonic-line/vandenhul. fono stage is a little-known (in the usa, anyway) german unit, the pentagon ps-3 (retails for ~$1800). this fono-stage was purchased only because i recently upgraded my preamp, & the gnu pre dint have a fono-stage. oh yeah, & i could even get a few bucks back if i ever decide to sell the mint grace 727 tonearm that came w/the oracle when i bought it! ;~)

good luck, doug

while i'm not a big fan of the current redbook-cd-standard for digital playback (i tink winyl is *much* better), i'd be surprised if the dcs a/d conwerter, w/its 24/192 sampling-rate isn't as good a a top-line analog fono-stage. foregoing the add-on fono-stage wooda reduced my system's price to $2400. and, to disagree w/onhwy61 & doug28450, while i tink the vpi jr is an excellent 'table, i must humbly submit my opinion that an oracle mk-v w/origin-live dc motor/power supply *is* in fact, a substantial improvement...

regards, doug s.