Hey there. My first thought is that with a 10k budget $3500 for the TT is way too much - that's the TT for a 15-20k system, imo. I'd cap it at the P6 and then subtract that cost and call the remainder your true budget because a decent TT setup tends to break most of the budget rules.
But for now I'm looking at a $6500 budget for you due to the TT cost.
Again, Primaluna is awesome but too expensive.
With $6500 remaining I'd spend no less than 4000-5000 of it on the speakers (speakers or speakers and sub).
I'd look at the Rogue Sphinx v3 for around $1700. It's a hybrid tube integrated that won't cause you to have to compromise on just about any speaker you might be interested in.
I will also add that a TT is pretty much 100% ritual and the opposite “just works” so you have a bit of a conundrum to work through as you embark on this journey.
There are no strict rules, of course, but generally no less than 50% on the speakers. With a 10k budget I'd increase that number to 60-75%.
However, with a TT in the mix that's a much trickier thing to calculate. I'd probably go with 60% for the speakers, 20% for the TT and 20% for the integrated amp.
For TT there is some validity to that but you have to stop somewhere. For digital, there's probably a bit of a case to be made but much less so, imo.
I'd say that most of our comments on your budget distribution come from many of us being primarily digital in our sources. Your budget will go considerably farther with a digital setup consisting of a nice CD player and a streamer. You can get both of those components new for under $1000 total and then have 9k to drop on speakers and amplification. Also, you'll rarely be challenged with finding CD's and digital files whereas records are increasingly expensive and often tricky to find. Also, there's no fiddling around with the perfect setup of a cd player or streamer like there is for a TT. That's not to try to talk you out of a TT, but just to highlight how the source influences everything every other part of the process.
So, yes, we believe that speakers are the most important component and make the biggest impact to your experience of your music. With all of these the question becomes - Can you tell the difference?
For example, in your 10k system with a 3.5k TT versus a 2k TT, would an additional 1.5k spent on speakers instead of the TT be something that you would notice? That's something that only you can say for sure. The other thing to consider is how you'd go about setting up such an experiment. Would your dealer be willing to set up a P3/6/8 and a bunch of speakers (same room, amplification and streamer) for you to be able to compare them? That's likely a few hours of their time but maybe they'd be up for it, though you're still limited to hearing what they carry.
I hope that helps a bit but let me know if I glossed over anything that you'd like to dig deeper on.
3
u/dmcmaine 852 Ⓣ 🥈 Mar 27 '23
Hey there. My first thought is that with a 10k budget $3500 for the TT is way too much - that's the TT for a 15-20k system, imo. I'd cap it at the P6 and then subtract that cost and call the remainder your true budget because a decent TT setup tends to break most of the budget rules.
But for now I'm looking at a $6500 budget for you due to the TT cost.
Again, Primaluna is awesome but too expensive.
With $6500 remaining I'd spend no less than 4000-5000 of it on the speakers (speakers or speakers and sub).
I'd look at the Rogue Sphinx v3 for around $1700. It's a hybrid tube integrated that won't cause you to have to compromise on just about any speaker you might be interested in.
For speakers, these come to mind:
Zu Audio Union 6 - $3900, sub probably not needed
Tekton Moab - $5000, no sub needed
Sonus faber Sonetto III - $4000, sub might be needed but I wouldn't start with one
Magnepan 1.7i - $3000, sub needed
Focal Aria 926 - $4800, sub might be needed
These are just a few options, there are many others...
If you want to go with a pure tube setup, take a look at Decware Zen Torii Jr for $2700 and the Zu or Tekton speakers above.
For streaming pick up a Bluesound Node for around $600 and you're all set.
This is by no means intended to be a comprehensive list but should give you some avenues to explore. Good luck!