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Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

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Have you identified what you want "more" of?

Posted by CometCKO on August 24, 2012 at 07:01:51:
The ARC is a nice phono stage. To make a very substantial improvement will cost you quite a bit. And for what? What is it that you are looking for? Can you find a friend who will let you borrow a phono stage to see whether it does what you want?

I had and ARC SP16 some years ago. I have not compared side by side, but I believe the Aesthetix Rhea phono stage that I'm using now (bought used for about $2k) is a definite improvement, based on what is important to me. Most of that improvement is in the tone/timbre of the musical instruments and "palpability" of the singers/musicians. I'll bet on a pure specs basis there's little real improvement. And in some ways, the ARC was better (more incisive leading edge on transients, for instance).

Is this worth it to you? Or what else do you want your phono stage to do for you? Only you can make that judgement. For instance, I tried a Pass Labs Xono and really loved the clarity and pureness, but I felt that in my system it was a bit too bare harmonically. I wanted a more fleshed-out sound, which I've generally only heard with tube gear so far, although I believe that it can be had with solid state/hybrid/strain gauge, whatever. Less concerned about the design, and more concerned with how it sounds. If you know what kind of sound you are looking for, it may be easier for someone with more experience of different gear to help you find it!

Hope this helps...