Should I sell Classe CP60 and get a phono stage ?

Hi Ken,

I would say that it would depend on how much you use your system for HT and how much for listening to music. I tried the high end HT way a few years ago, but found that I wasn't enjoying the music. I left high end HT and returned to two channel with a Classe CP-60 w/phono. I never looked back. I never found a SSP that could reproduce music like the CP-60. I've since moved on, and now have a BAT VK-51SE preamp, but I have no regrets at all.
I do still watch an occasional movie with HT, but I find a Denon receiver drives the surrounds just fine, with the FL & FR being fed into my BAT preamp.
I use my system for over 80% music though. When I had high end SSP's (Classe, Proceed, Krell, etc) I was only listening to about 20% music. I spend a lot more time with my system now, because there's nothing quite as entertaining as an audio system that sounds great with music.
I'd keep the Classe CP-60 if I were you, and just run your SSP or receiver through it. I've never heard a digital preamp or SSP, sound as good as a two channel analog preamp yet. Most don't even come close.
I'm not trying to start a flame war. If HT/video is your bag then run out and buy the latest SSP, but if you want music, keep your CP-60.
That's my $0.02

Cheers,
John

Ken is correct about how to run the FR & FL outputs from the SSP/receiver into the L/R input jacks of his two channel preamp.

Ken, I am wondering though, why you would want your SSP to process your cd player and turntable? It would seem to me that this would only serve to degrade the signal.
I used the CP-60's SSP input regularly, it was an easy fix for combining a HT system with a stereo system. I never used the SSP output, nor did I ever think of a reason that I would have wanted to use it.

John