jo1mtb:
@millercarbon I like your thinking. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, especially on the TT. I know almost nothing about that, so thanks again.
I also really like you're more balanced spending approach. I could be guilty of putting half in the speakers and then pinching a bit in other areas.
I ascribe to the 'build-around-your-speakers'- thinking. But many would agree that starting with the source is the best way.
I definitely would like to get into a TT, but my vinyl collection is little and very old, and not sure how well it has aged. (Navy storage while overseas and then when retired for another year)
Why the PrimaLuna? If I'm honest, I'm leery.
Number One thing to know about turntables, they are forever. Unlike digital which comes with a shelf life of like a week. (If that.) My current Miller Carbon turntable (very old version here)
https://www.theanalogdept.com/c_miller.htm still satisfies (amazes, actually) more than 15 years later.
Related to this, turntables hold their value. My previous table, Basis 2000, sold after 10 years for about what I paid for it. My first table, Technics SL1700 (still with me) is worth more now than when new. The Graham arm I had before my Origin Live also sold after many years for something like 75-80% of purchase price. Compare that to digital at ten to thirty years. Not even good as a door stop.
Number Two the upgrade path is a lot better. With a good turntable you can individually upgrade the arm, or cartridge, and $5k for a great arm or cartridge is a lot easier than $15k for an all-in-one type deal.
As for your records, the truth is that while no two are created equal the good ones from back in the day sound better than the new "audiophile" reissues, almost always. Yes analog is a little more work. But not one single person who has heard them compared in my room has ever preferred the CD, including even back when it was the old Technics vs Cal Audio. By the time you get to a $5k rig you can just about throw a dart and whatever you hit will trounce any amount of digital gear. (When you hear otherwise, consider how much they spent on digital and how unlikely people are to admit they made a mistake. Been there. Done that. No more throwing good money after bad.)
"Build around the speakers" goes back to olden times when everything was crap but speakers were crappiest of all. Back then the wires were so crappy that no matter how good your source or speakers you couldn't get that signal from one to the other without it being smeared half to death by the crappy lamp cord and patch cords. So what you heard back then was for the most part the speakers, and it was worth putting half or maybe even more of your budget into just the speakers. Well what else were you gonna spend it on? Thicker lamp cord??
Nowadays even inexpensive speakers are so good you easily notice every change upstream, and the really good speakers are so transparent they pretty much disappear. Yes there are differences. But in all cases they are basically putting out what you feed them, and so it is much more important to feed them a really high quality signal.
At the same time power cords and conditioners have improved immensely. Even something as seemingly small as a fuse can make as much difference as a major component upgrade. Every single element in the chain, and even things seemingly not in the direct signal path like power cords, impacts system sound quality. For all these reasons it just makes no sense to put too much emphasis on any one component.
Prima Luna, never have heard it myself. But I have read the reviews, and posts, and have a lot of experience with amps based on the same tubes. Tube amps, unlike SS, tend to be very simple affairs circuitry-wise. My previous two amps were Aronov and Melody, both about 60 wpc, both integrated, both 6550C or KT88. Prior to these I had a McCormack DNA-1, a very fine amp I can say nothing bad about. The tube gear is just a tiny little bit better. But here you get into details like integrateds are just plain better for the money than separates. Problem is, since wire matters, its not just the pre and power amp but the power cords and interconnect that all added together eat up your budget.
Tastes vary but I have no doubt the system recommended above will more than satisfy an awful lot of people. For sure no one will beat it with anything that does not pay equally detailed attention to all aspects of the system- not only wire but right down to the fuses, HFT, and Cones. The Tekton Moabs I do not have but am strongly considering to replace my (much more expensive when new) Talon Khorus. What I have recommended above is way beyond a mere component list. It is a very high-value, no-apologies, and complete system.
