vinyl is the main focus of my system. for people who aren't familiar with dj setups, the mixer is essentially a phono pre with eq and filtering options. i do mix but am not particularly active with it (don't scratch or cut, only blend, no regular gigs at this point), so i dig using more "hi-fi" carts and mats and that kind of thing. next move is a cartridge upgrade.
my speakers are about 10 feet apart and i sit about 8 feet away. room sounds really good.
downsized a little bit in recent months, got rid of a couple things, swapped amps. the heed amp is fantastic with my klipsch speakers, but i do still want to try class a tube amp someday. i play cds on an old dvd player and my akai tape player is still running strong.
@mjcmt i am kind of in-between - i still like to mix and combine different records and once or two nights a week i'll be down in the basement for 4 or 5 hours just vibing, picking out favorite tracks and playing them back to back. i rarely play out anymore (36 now and live 500 miles from my friends who are still djing parties/radio regularly) but am still open to it - last year right before covid i got to play some music for a couple hours at the local record fair. so i will likely always keep a pair of tables with a mixer.
i (usually, generally) prefer the sound of more home-oriented setups to that neutral, every-note-under-a-microscope pro audio kind of equipment. this is my (definitely budget-conscious) attempt at combining the two, basically for my own pleasure.
i did have a mani briefly on another setup but ended up giving it to a friend - not too much difference in sound to the phono stage in the old pioneer i use, and he needed one. i also have a rek o kut phonostage with a 78eq curve that i was using with a Dual strictly for 78 playback, but the Dual needs some work and i don't have that many 78s around anyway. as everyone on this site knows...gear comes and goes
Looks like part DJ, part audiophile system. Is this your intent or are you making the slow transition to an audiophile system. If so setting your turntables up w/ nice phono preamps (like the Schiit Audio Mani) into your Rogue w/ improve the sound of vinyl playback. Your choice of Forte speakers, Rogue amp, Technics TTs and NAD cdp are strong choices. As a budget audiophile myself I'll bet it does great sound.
