What's the weakest link in my stereo set up? I live in a townhome, so limited on space.


90% of my time is used listening to records. The other 10% is used by my wife and I to just stream TIDAL or Spotify.

I live in a three story townhome. High ceilings. Not wide rooms, but long.

I would love to be able to use a room just for the stereo, but I cannot. I like staying married, which also means I cannot turn our guest bedroom into just a music-listening adventure room. So, the stereo is in my living room on the first floor. This also means I don’t have room for floor standing speakers.

Focal 906 bookshelf speakers

Technics SL-1210 Mk II (modded out by KAB USA)

Currently using a Nagaoka MP-150 cartridge

McIntosh MP100 phono amp

Cambridge EVO 150 stereo amplifier, entertainment hub, streamer, etc (my wife uses this a lot to stream Spotify while going about the house)

Topping A70Pro headphone amplifier

 

I’m going to assume people are going to say either my turntable or my speakers. Would it be wise to upgrade my Technics to one of the higher end models? I really love the ease of using this little beast of a player. I know it’s known as "the DJ turntable", but it wasn’t made to be one -- it just became that.

The Focals are nice too, and they were also bought new for less than a grand.

(Also, sorry if this is subjective as a question. I’m new to a lot of this. I hope something stands out as an obvious room to upgrade no matter what your tastes are.

Also, I’ve been selling some of the equipment that my late father had, and while doing so I’ve been getting interested in upgrading the system I cobbled together years ago. And no, for emotional and attachment reasons, I didn’t want to keep things that he owned.)

Budget ~$2K

128x128vrikkian

@vrikkian

thats why I suggested borrowing cables from thecableco.com.
you should find out for yourself what is true or not.

a poster after me suggest DHLabs cables. They are also good but a different sound signature than Kimber Kable.

 

ask the folks at thecableco about DHLabs cables as well.

you really gotta try it, I suggest.

Would love it you report back here after

trying a few different borrowed cables.

I live in a small apartment and have similar limited placement issues.  I have a large LP collection (housed in IKEA Expedit) and recently moved the LPs out of the listening room to a small bedroom in place of a smaller IKEA Kallax and lower speaker stands.  The change yielded huge benefits and added more room around the speakers and now it sounds like an entirely different system.  Go check out my system here for the pics

 https://www.audiogon.com/systems/9905

@vrikkian Perhaps you can make a similar change that doesn’t cost anything but a little time to move things around?