Tier Lo · Silent Path (mandate)
The quietest route from groove to room, hunting hiss and hum out of the system.
One certified system per brief. Costs appear only as signed percentages against each tier’s (unpublished) baseline; absolute prices are not shown.
The certified system
| Slot | Component |
|---|---|
| Turntable | Technics SL-1500CS (with cart) |
| Tonearm | Technics S-shape aluminium tonearm (SL-1500C/CS) |
| Cartridge | Rega Nd3 MM |
| Phono stage | Rega Aria Mk3 MM/MC |
| Preamplifier | NVA P50 MKII |
| Power amplifier | NVA S80 Stereo |
| Loudspeakers | Neat Iota 2 |
| Whole-system cost vs tier baseline | +0.5% |
Amplification: preamplifier and power amplifier — an outcome of the search, not a requirement.
How the money is shaped
How the budget is shaped here — each share is the portion of the whole build this brief aims at that position. A position marked free is left to find its own level. Where a free position shows a minimum, the brief sets no target for it but will not let it be starved: it must take at least that share of the build.
| Position | Share of build |
|---|---|
| Cartridge | 1.8% |
| Tonearm | 5.5% |
| Turntable | 29.1% |
| Phono stage | 45.5% |
| Preamplifier | 13.2% |
| Power amplifier | 5.0% |
| Loudspeakers | free· at least 3.8% |
Why there is no subwoofer
No subwoofer is fitted: at this tier the budget is better spent inside the core system, and the loudspeaker carries the bass range alone.