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New phono preamp or tonearm?

Hi,

Presently own a ClearAudio Master Solution with a Tecnoarm from Michell and a Benz Wood M2, phono pre is an ARC PH3. I am in the process of upgrading my phono pre and tonearm and I was wondering which I should do first, arm or pre! Short list for tone arm is the Graham Phantom II, phono pre I will be looking at the ARC PH7, Nagra VPS, Aesthetix Rhea, EAR 88BP and Artemis Lab PH1. I think I will be keeping the Technoarm for a second mono cartridge, so some phono pre are better suited for my purpose than others (2 inputs).

Current system consists of an ARC Ref3 pre, ARC VS110 amp, SF Cremona speakers, YTER interconnects and Shunyata Orion speaker cables. I listen mostly to jazz.

Thanks for reading
redsectora

Showing 1 response by thomasheisig

thomasheisig
568 posts
 
The preamp (line or phono) is in my opinion the heart and brain from each System. There is no other component in the whole System where you can loose so much information (or win).
The Tonearm is not that important (in this comparison). When "forced" to make a decision between a - for example - Lamm LP2 with a Rega 300 or 500$ Phono with Phantom... well, for that decision I would not need any time :).
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