Moving Up from a Jolida JD9


Thinking about moving up from my modded Jolida JD9. It has Audyn caps, Sonic Imagery Discrete Op Amps, and sounds about as good as it ever will. I'd just like to have something that sounds smoother and more refined. I'd like to stay with tubes, preferably 12AX7's as I have a bunch of them already on hand. My budget is around $1500 and I have no problem with buying used gear. I have a VPI Scout with an ART9xa cart. I mostly listen to classic rock, blues, and smooth jazz. Any suggestions, opinions, advice will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Sam

128x128slovell

I am retired as well. This is great, I have much more time to listen to music.

Following up on @tksteingraber.

I was able to bring up my streaming to the level of my vinyl sound quality. The benefits have been simply overwhelming for $12.99 per month. I have access to essentially all music. There is over half a million albums at high resolution, this is completely opened up by scope of music. Not to mention as your knees get more creaky you don’t have to get up enough or risk breaking off a stylist.

 

You might consider saving up and slowly investing in streaming. I have found you can spread out the payments over six months to years and the benefits are huge just a thought from my experience.. now retired for five years.

Going on seven years for me. My knees aren't great but my lower back is absolutely junk. 
I've thought about getting set up for streaming and may do it next year if I'm still around. I really need to start thinking about downsizing as I can hear my clock ticking nowadays. It'll be tough to sell lps I've had since the sixties.

OP,

Understood. I get the difficulty in parting with the LPs. You can see my wall of albums under my UserID, also started in the ‘60s. The sad thing is I seldom play them although I have a top notch TT and Phonostage. My audio dealer has instructions to sell it as a collection and my system and give the proceeds to my partner. 

But to maximize your enjoyment, I would think streaming. Way easier on the knees.
 

 

I still play my vinyl two or three times a week. I still enjoy the black art of set up and the ritual of playback. Or maybe I’m just nuts. There are no dealers in my area to help with a sell off so I’ll have to take care of that myself.
Does anyone have an opinion on or experience with the Rogue Audio Ares? There’s one for sale in the classifieds within my budget and it uses the same tubes I alread have. Could possibly be what I’m looking for?
Also found an E.A.T. E-Glo Petit for the same price on another site.