Rega Planar 8 : Linn Linto phono stage vs. Rega Aria phono stage

Hi All,

I recently upgraded my Rega Planar 3 to a new Rega Planar 8 with Apheta 3 and I use my good old Linn Linto as phono stage.

I found out that a tracking force of 1.80 gr provides the best result.

The difference between the planar 3 and the planar 8/apheta is obviously massive.

Better sound stage, deeper bass, gigantic drums presence and a sweet mellow sound that is never too bright.

I wouldn’t write this post if there wasn’t an issue with precision which I wonder whether it might be related to the Linto phono stage :

During dense musical pieces the human voice is not perfectly accurate. I remember hearing these musical pieces in my house with other turntable/phono stage and the voice stood out in more accurate manner than I’m able to extract from my Planar 8 + Linto phono stage.

The million dollar question is than… Is the Linn linto a bottleneck ? Will the Rega Aria phono stage be able to extract more from the Rega planar 8/Apheta ?