At 71 years of age, I have two possible upgrades I’d like to perform. After that I’m done, except for the usual tweaks (i.e., tubes, isolation, etc.). I’m very happy with the system I’ve built over the years, and it fits my room (medium), and the sound I’ve been after has been realized. I am guilty of concentrating on the main components of my system, and not paying much attention to what connects them. And, I’m in the hunt to upgrade my line stage…Maybe? So, what to do first, and perhaps I can hold off on the second option entirely? My budget is under $6,000 for either one.
I’m still an analog guy, even though I do have a DAC, Streamer, and NAS. My concentration here is for my phono playback. My interconnects and cables are old, but even so, each time I’ve upgraded a main component I have heard definite and sometimes significant improvement. Whenever I purchased interconnects/cables in the past, they were always decent ones at the time.
Option 1 - I’m looking at replacing the following interconnects/cables for my phono playback…
Turntable, Arm, Cartridge: Upgraded TW Acustic Raven, Ortofon RS 309D, Ortofon Verismo
Current Phono Cable: Cardas Cross
Phono Stage: Tron Seven with the Reference caps
Current Interconnect to Line Stage: Cardas Cross Reference
Line Stage: Boulder L3AE and recently upgraded the caps by Boulder
Current Interconnect to Amps: Crystal Piccolo
Amps: TW Acustic 300B Monoblocks
Current Speaker Cable: WireWorld Silver (original)
Option 2 - My system is fully unbalanced, so when considering a line stage, I don’t want to pay extra for designs that benefit from using the balanced side when I won’t be using that. One consideration for replacing my Boulder, is the Audible Illusions L3B.
So, which option might you choose if you could only choose one? And, what might you go with?
Thanks,
Kenny
