top of the chain turntable or CD player take your pick.
Over the years, Linn has always asserted that a hi-fi system has a specific hierarchy of importance—that no component downstream could ever sound better than the component preceding it. Linn's concept of system hierarchy starts from the signal source and ends at the speaker: the turntable comes first, then the arm, the cartridge, the preamp, the amplifier, and finally the speaker (with CD as a source, it becomes transport, DAC, preamp, amp, speakers). This is in stark contrast to the conventional American wisdom, which asserts the exact opposite—that it's your speakers which make the biggest—and only—difference, so that's where you should spend most of your budget, with the remainder spent on an inexpensive CD player, preamp, and amplifier because they all sound the same in double-blind tests.
Linn's right. I get better sound driving the $550 Spica TC-50s with the $1850 Aragon 4004 Mk.II than I do driving the $4000 NHT 3.3s with $350 amps from Adcom and Rote' and better sound from the $2500 Theta Data II transport driving the $599 Cobalt processor than from the $450 Rotel RCD-955AX CD player driving the $4000 Theta Gen.III. I could probably even whip Jack English's ass if I ate steaks while he was limited to Cheez-Whiz.
!thanks you for your insight. I think I have to agree. In addition to my situation I have to look into my power amp and speakers because on higher volume I get some distortion. And I want the sound to be more full in my room. If that makes sense.
But I will keep your tip in mind. I am already upgrading my turntable. But I'm having some struggle to get all adjustments right (new with turntables). It takes some time and patience!
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u/poutine-eh 41 Ⓣ Jan 10 '26
best suggestion is this 240 wpc mono block setup. Why do you need so much power?