My Vinyl Revival Has Come, But I Need a Little Help

[relaxo]

Hi,

This is my first post here. I am a recording engineer with 450 old rock/folk albums in my collection. I had a little money 10 years ago before building a recording studio and bought a:

Rega Planar 3
McCormack ALD-1 w/ phono section.
Rega Elys

Now I will fulfill a dream and make it LISTENABLE finally!

1) Should I try the other preamps that you all talk about and possibly ditch the McCormack ALD-1 phono preamp?

2) I hate my Rega Elys. It sounds too HARD and dry to me with a lot of surface noise. My old Shure V15 was TOO MELLOW, too restrained with no excitement. What should I buy? I have read that the Dynavector10x5 is good for rock. The Audio-Technica OC9 Cartridge? Denon DL-160 Cartridge. Benz Micro Glider Cartridge?

Thanks for your comments,

Scott Clark
Recording Engineer
Mercy Sound Studios NYC
http://www.mercysound.com/