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Scout cartridge and phone preamp recommendations

First post...

I've just started to compile my first serious stereo, and my first purchase was the VPI Scout which I am very excited about. Now, I don't have a heck of a lot of money left for a while, so amp and speakers will probably not come for a while. So my goal is to get decent cartridge, cables and a cheap but decent phone pre amp that I can hook up to my headphones so I can still enjoy my record collection somewhat in the meantime.

As for cartridge I'm leaning towards Dynavactor 10x5 or Benz MC-20e2. I'm in that 300 dollar class.

When it comes to preamp, I'm less certain. I was thinking of going a Bellari like VP129 or VP530. But they don't support MC cartridges do they? I'm well aware that Bellari preamps are not exactly on the same scale as the my Scout, but again, this is just a pressing financial issue.

For cables I'm looking at Audioquest's King Cobra.

Thanks.
parvenu79

Showing 1 response by rauliruegas

rauliruegas
13,129 posts
 
Dear Parvenue: Everything is important to achieve a good quality level performance, the important subject could be to choose the best/better trade-oofs to achieve a good balance/synergy on your system links.

My advise is that on cartridge choice you can go for a MM cartridge that are very good performers for a very fair price, example: you can get right now one of the best MM cartridge ( better than any of the MC ones named here ) here: http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgcart&1226880237&/Audio-Technica-AT-150MLx, and this is not the only option. Please read about here:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1200430667

after the cartridge try to put your money ( as much you can ) on the phono stage and don't worry about LOMC cartridges.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
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