Buying a new TT today

Wow thx. Good info.  Look at any dealer online that sells Rega,  the P10 is $5,695 and if you get the Apheta 3, its only a $1,000 extra with a total of $6,695. And its installed directly by Rega so its perfect.  The cartridge on its own is $2,000. 

With the usual 10/15 percent dealer discount, the price winds up being around $5,700, not bad with that beefy power supply.  

The 20/20 with LPS , i got a demo for $2k.  So $7,700  all in.  I researched the 20/20, and with the LPS, its supposed to perform as well as his $4k Duo.  The engineers and sales guys I spoke to were pretty much in consensus that the Rega with the Sutherland phono is a better combo than Regas own phono at the same price point.  Even the KC VIBE was preferred over the Aria and thry are definitely making less margin on that advice! 

This is fun.  

Really weird - different Rega dealers have different list prices. From $6700-7700 for the P10, but $4395 for the P8....strange. Sound Organisation included. Rega is a strange company from a marketing/sales standpoint.

If you are sold on the P10, $6695 sounds pretty good. I actually talked to Ron Sutherland a few times when he was helping me out with my upgrade and he mentioned the 20/20 was better than the Insight by a good bit from a materials standpoint, with a bigger difference than between the Little Loco ($3800) and and the 20/20. The power supply on the Loco is the same board as the one I got on the Insight (that recently became available and was only the 3rd person to do that install myself). But the Little Loco is better than the 20/20. The law of diminishing returns....

The LL is a different (I think newer) design that Ron really likes and he kind of mentioned that would be a good next step for me and he would just charge me the price difference - really nice guy, but I'm not going to drop $2K for an upgraded phono stage at this point. Who knows how crazy/obsessed with upgraditis I'll get in the future.

If the dealer is giving you the 20/20 with the LPS for $2K, that's a 25% discount and very good. You'd be at $8700 for the full Rega rig with the 20/20 w/LPS. You said $7700 - if he is giving you another $1000 off, that's an excellent deal. My Rega dealer wouldn't move on price, but I bought in stages with the arm first, and then the table 3-4 months later. I had to twist his arm to sell me the upgraded table for the difference between what I already paid and the P8. It cost me like $365 extra since I didn't get much of a discount $100 (I don't think the dealer knew the actual price was $100 more), but live and learn...I would never have bought the whole P8 at once and paid $2K, bit I got sucked in in stages.

So is he willing to sell you the P8/Alphreta 3 for $3500 (a 15% discount off of the $3095 +$1000)? That would mean $2200 more for the P10 (>60% more). You could get the whole analogue rig for $5500. Depends on what you want to spend. Either way, you can't go wrong.

If you go for the P10, you could be done with the analogue rig and it would be the absolute best part of your system which you wouldn't have to touch until after your speaker and amp upgrades. Just make sure when you buy each piece it is better than (or at least equal to) the rest of the components in your system. You should have an idea about where you want your total investment to be for this plateau. If the P10 fits in (40-50% for the rig) around $15K total, then go for it. 

so how did we get here? The OP has a budget of $2K, which sounds fine to me. Now we're talking about 7-10K systems....?

Come on guys -- start your own thread and argue all day about DD vs belt drive and the P10 vs the P8....

Regards!

Hello everyone, OP here...

First, I want to say that I’ve read every response and WOW! What a blessing to have such a deep and diverse base of knowledge that people like myself can tap and is freely given! My hat is off to all of you who have responded... THANK YOU!!!!!!

Second, I’m sorry it has taken so long to respond to all of you! My apologies....
Last Thursday I did go out and look at TT’s at two great shops here in Colorado Springs. I spent 8 hours between the two shops and they were fantastic with me, so I tip my hat to the both of them too!

So to answer the big question..... Yes I did buy a TT aaaaaaaand I bought a cartridge to upgrade the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon.
So I asked the question on which way to go and ended up going both ways lol I just had to see what improvement could be made to the Pro-Ject and if it could match a TT that costs over three times as much? We shall see....

Now, I checked out Rega 8, VPI Scout, Music Hall 7.3, and the Marantz TT—15s1...
I really wanted to look at the VPI Prime Scout! I was very interested in it but my one shop here said they couldn’t tell me how long it would take to get but, it could be some time and they just didn’t know how long it would be? The second shop said they couldn’t get them anymore at all? Some will say internet but after the Covid shut down I really wanted to give my business to my local shops!
Anyway I missed out on the Prime Scout, maybe some day?

At the end of the day, even with its quirkiness, I went with synergy and the cartridge, and the arm, and yes it’s good looks! I bought the Marantz...
Aaaaaand I bought the Ortofon Bronze for the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon.

So I know that the Marantz wasn’t talked about but once in this thread so I’m thinking it’s not thought of much anymore but my guy at the Sound Shop here in the Springs who is a vinyl guy raves about it and KI did develop it along side and at the same time of my Integrated soooooo.....
Im hoping, praying lol, that I get that big step up and it has that same wow factor as the Pro-Ject did when I first heard it!

Thanks again everyone and please post up, good or bad, your thoughts and insights of my two purchases!

@gasbose 
I just realized that not only were you the last to post and to try to bring this back to the original discussion, but you were the only one to recommend doing both....
Buy a TT and a cartridge for the Pro-Ject! Nice job at reading my future lol I might appoint you my sage lol