Putting together a 2 channel system


Im putting together a two channel, strictly music setup. I want to play vinyl as well as some aux. Currently I have a pro ject turntable hooked up to a pair of klipsch kg1s, pioneer 747, and a mirage sub. I have upgraded the speakers to the Focal 707s and am now looking to upgrade the amp. Any experience with the Focals and advice on a good phono amp to get the most out of them. I will be using the mirage sub for the low stuff. Looking forward to your suggestions
cfosselman
How much do you want to spend ? Do you want Vintage or New.Tube or integrated?
Once you get to a certain decent level, which you certainly are now, then the focus shifts to what are your goals longer term, and what can you realistically budget to achieve them? Because it simply does not pay to make a lot of baby steps. Much better to make great strides.   

That said you have two paths, neither one mutually exclusive of the other. You can certainly pursue both at the same time.   

The one path is to get the most out of what you have. This calls for learning about vibration control, field control, power and wire, acoustics, all of that. This is a lot more serious and worth a lot more time and money than most people think.     
You can start down this path easily and soon with things like Nobsound springs, which you will want under your turntable. At the very least.   

The other one is to think about where you will be or want to be in 5, 10, 20 years. Because most will say go buy something a little better than what you have. What I'm saying is find something a LOT better than what you have! But do it smart.  

Like for example a Decware ZP3 is a seriously good phono stage way better than anything you have now which makes it totally suitable for where you will be some years down the road. Instead of churning through 3 or 4 phono stages losing a little on each one you got there in one fell swoop. 

That is just one example more for the way I approach it than anything specific. A great choice but a one year build time right now.   

Another great pick would be a Bottlehead amp or phono stage. Or if you want to save up for something really special a Raven Nighthawk.   

This is the way my system was built up over the decades. Over the years I have seen it work better than any other approach. Doing it this way each component is a significant investment, so can't be done very often. Most of my components have lasted me about 10-12 years. In between components were tweaks that all together amount to about as much improvement as the components.  

I would highly recommend basing this on an integrated amp (for extreme high value) and then building out the rest with quality phono stage, turntable, etc but keep the focus on individual component sq/$ and not worry too much about in what order.


Couldn’t agree more MC.
I have found that most of the things I have bought that were "a little better" ended up being lateral moves or just that: a little better. If you are trying to make a noticeable improvement in your system, save for "a lot better".