and look towards the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon or Music Hall MMF-2.2. There are documented production quality issues with the RP-1. The cartridges on the other two are somewhat better and the tonearms, motors and isolation are also somewhat better. You could save some money on the phono stage and get the outstanding Musical Fidelity V-LPS Mk II for $200. If you have USB output from your computer you could save another $100 on the DAC over the Bifrost and get the Audioquest DragonFly DAC. The upper quality cables from Monoprice are adequate. Good luck!

I have an NAD 7100 AMP for sale as I just replaced it with an NAD 356BEE. Fifty bucks plus shipping. Amp does create a light hum when you first turn it on but goes away in 1-2 minutes. May of been just interference but I never moved it to verify otherwise. Very quiet otherwise. Just an option to use a lesser AMP leaving money to get long term speakers and better some other areas of your upgrade. Trevor

I think your choices are pretty good there; especially the amplfier and speakers.

I would also suggest the Music Hall MMF-2.2 turntable. I had it for a few years and it is very good for $449.

I thik the best phono preamp you can get for under $500 is the Musical Fidelity V-LPS, which sells for $189 (however read below).

Another alternative I would consider is the Harman-Kardon 3490 stereo receiver. It is a very good unit, and has some added features compared to the NAD  that might be helpful and save you money.

It sells for around $400, and it has a good built-in phono preamp, which will save you $200. It also has outputs for subwoofers, should you ever want to add one in the future, plus a FM/AM tuner for receiving broadcasts. It also has 120 watts per channel, which might be helpful if you ever wanted to go to larger speakers some day.

All in all it is a VERY attractive high-quality unit for only $400.

These are amazing speakers for the price, incredibly musical, beg to be listened to and seem to play all types of music with great detail and refined soundstage. They do produce good tight bass, but not in huge ammounts. They are easy to fall in love with. Definitely worth an audition!