£500-£1000 to upgrade from Kipsch R-15PM and Rega P2/Ortofon Black?

Hello team Steve Hoffman. I hear great things about your expertise I’m looking to spend anywhere from £500-£1000 to improve my current setup and looking for some advice… I’m in the UK so can shop across Amazon Europe for example - actually bought my current speakers from Amazon DE a few years back.

My current set up is really simple.

Speakers: Klipsch R-15PM

Turntable: Rega P2 (Vintage version from the 90s) with an Ortofon 2M Black

And that’s about it! It sounds great to be honest, but I often feel like I can tell I’m missing out on the tiny details in certain bits of music. The Klipsch are powered speakers so I’ve never needed a pre-amp (and I bought them deliberately for that as at the time I didn’t have much space).

This set-up is being used exclusively for music. Although hooked up to my turntable, I do use the bluetooth on them all the time with Spotify from my phone. I know this goes against audiophile sensibilities but the practicality of sitting in bed and putting music on is just too good, so I wouldn’t want to lose that functionality.

I actually really like the sound of the Klipsch’s - they are lacking slightly in bass, and to my untrained ears I think the mids quite often can get a bit muddy. But I think I like quite a clinical sound (which works well with the Ortofon Black.

At the moment they sit on glass speaker stands in my room which is about I’m never able to play music REALLY loud as I live in a flat and don’t want to piss off my neighbours. My room is about 3.5m x 3.5m, ceiling maybe 3m tall.

Would I benefit from an amplifier? I think that might help compensate for the struggling bass/mids on the Klipsch’s? I’ve been looking at the Onkyo A-9110. But then it’s unclear to me if I get that, do I then need an amplifier or pre-amp? I've seen the Schiit Modi 3 banded around as a good budget upgrade. And I presume using the bluetooth on the speakers would then bypass this, removing some of the benefit. I actually am slightly confused by what all the different parts of a setup do - if my Klipsch speakers were the unpowered version, would I need an amp AND a DAC?

Otherwise I’m interested in getting a direct drive turntable. The Rega sometimes struggles with platter speed and I’m considering replacing, but not sure what a good upgrade would be from here.

Thanks for the help!

 

If you like the Planar 2, your budget exceeds the budget for a new Planar 3. And you're just £49 short of getting a Planar 6. The Planar 6 with the included Neo power supply should alleviate your issues with platter speed.

 

For me an AT OC9iii, or SA33, or Art9 all were major upgrades over the 2M Black, if your pre can do MC

 

Thanks for the help both! I think I could probably look into an AT OC9iii and Rega Planar 6 for just over £1000 if I'm very savvy...

At the moment I don't have a pre-amp as it's built into the Klipsch bookshelf speakers.

Bearing the pre-amp issue in mind, would it be overkill to go for this combo with my current speakers? I worry that I wouldn't be doing it justice...

 

There are plenty of decent Rega RP6’s on the market (nearly new, ex-demo), with the Neo PSU, if you look around on the web, within your price bracket, either with the Exact cart or using your Ortofon Black (which is very nice).