Upgrading Rega P9 + RB1000

I have the RB-1000. You must atleast disconnect the ground from the left channel lead and run a seperate ground wire. Also get the rega extra heavy weight (from rega) so you can place it closer to the arm pivot. That said, the arm is still compromised with the stock wiring as the bass is lumpy and 'folded' under. I do not like the Incognito kit for many reasons. And the Discovery wire is too high a gauge. So for now I am contemplating putting a Din plug attached to the stock internal tonearm wire. In summary the main culprit on the 1000 is the ground scheme and use of coaxial cable lead out. Internal arm wire is acceptable.

Reb1208, good insights. I've never seen an RB100 and had no idea it was wired so poorly. Coax lead out??? ...

I believe that if you put a DIN plug on the Rega arm you can then use some tonearm grade pure silver wire(Audio Note U.K) and solder a direct connection to your phono stage,without using RCA plugs.This is the best thing to do apart from a complete rewire.stefanl

Soldering direct to the stage is only for the most "adventureous". This past weekend I opened up the base plug and did the ground mod- this took care of the distortion in the highs. I am not looking foward to doing more surgery. Attaching a din to the internal wire at the bass is like a 3hr nerve wrenching tourture session. If I go back in it must be the best proven option. Was thinking of drilling the arm tube near the back to let the wire come out like the VPI and Basis arms. But I decided that having these wires exposed to airborne vibration is a no-no.

Thanks to all.

Doug, my CAT SL1 Ultimate preamp has an MC phono board. Its phono gain is 46db. So mid to high output cartridges (0.35~0.8 mV) can be used. The CAT also supplies the impedence load plugs (probably 50, 100, 150, 300). But as the Ruby's recommended load is 1000~47k, I do not use the plugs. So the impedence is currently matched to 47k.

For the head amp or the stepup transformer, I agree with your opinion. They may improve the base weight and the presence of music. Thanks for your information about the Mu stepup transformer. Could you give me more comments about Mu's sound characteristics?

For the phono cable, is there anyone having experiences of rewiring of Rega's stock ones? Any significant improvement? Any risk in the modifications? My P9 + RB1000 combo has a so-called 'golden midrange glow', but the bass is lumpy and 'folded' under as Reb described.