Where to start upgrading?


I've got the itch to start a gradual process to upgrade my setup, but analysis paralysis is setting in...

The receiver and speakers are less important to me as 90% of my listening is through headphones in a finished attic space with less than ideal acoustics.  My gut reaction was to upgrade the turntable and cartridge first and build around that "base".   I've been looking in the price range of ~$5-6,000 for the turntable and cartridge, but would a turntable upgrade have a low ceiling for performance improvement based on the other components?

My current setup is:

Turntable: Pioneer PL-560

Cart: Denon DL-110

Phono stage: iFi Zen phono 3

Headphone amp: Schitt Magni

Headphones: Sennheiser HD650

fignuts33

Showing 1 response by jeffbij

I agree with the recommendation of upgrading the headphone amp first and going  the tube route would be my personal preference as well.  I really, really like the Decware CSP3 headphone amp/line stage preamp.  You can find used examples, if you are patient, for under $1500. I also like the 300B units as well.

Then address the turntable/cartridge/phono preamp.  And don't skimp on the phono preamp, it can be the most important part of the three.

And to not add to the upgrade paralysis (lol), a few other suggestions/things to not loose sight of...

  • You didn't mention cabling, but you can cripple a system with cables that aren't up to the level of rest of the system.  That includes interconnects, power, AND the headphone cables. 
  • Make sure the headphone amp can support the higher 300 ohm impedance of the HD 650's.  Most good amps should be able to handle it.
  • How noisy and stable is your AC power?  Do you need a power conditioner?  
  • Are you using any digital sources?  Streaming or CD?  If so, how is that going to impact things.
  • You mentioned that 90% of your listening is headphones.  So, don't forget and loose sight of the other 10% that you may want/need to integrate into the system.

In the end, take your time, do your research and plan out the upgrade path.

... just my 2 cents... 

- Jeff