Very satisfied owner of a mini torii here. I've saved enough to make the next big upgrade to my stereo and am considering three options: first is the option of upgrading the torii to the current specs and VCAPs etc, the second is to upgrade to a zen torii, and the third is to upgrade from a rega to VPI playback device. My question for you is where is my money best spent? I have very efficient speakers and rarely turn my amp up above 25% so I'm not sure I will really use the added wattage but perhaps I have a distorted understanding of watts and volume. Anyway I'm ready to make the next move but I'm gathering information. Thanks for your time

The distorted understanding part almost sounds like a lead in to a geeky joke!

If you're only turning your amp about 25%, then you probably have a lot of headroom and are fine with the amp you have. Ask yourself, does it sound like it's having trouble keeping up with complex music? If not, then do like Lon suggests, and focus on your sources.

You didn't mention your speakers, so I'm assuming you're not looking to replace them.

Make sure all the links in your chain are good - interconnects, power cords, speaker lines etc.

And of course, I'm always a big proponent of room treatment. Get some bass traps, absorbers, and diffusers in there!

Take a leap! So many carts at varying prices. Someone mentioned Zu cartridges. They take the Denon 103 and upgrade them. There are something like 12 versions but...all sold out.

I think it is an rb300 arm. So I'll start looking for a new cartridge. What about VCAPS and the other upgrades available for the mini torii? Also I feel like attenuated knobs would be good. That way I know they are at equal levels. Right?

I think I'll add my two cents worth here . I had the same situation with using the volume control on my amp. At 25%, it was loud. The trouble with this is that there was little room for fine volume adjustment. Before I did anything else, I 'adjusted' the volume control with tantalum resistors both in the signal path and to ground. What this did for me was to give the volume control knob a lot more space to turn up. This made it much easier to make a fine volume control adjustment. What you mentioned about the repeatability of a stepped attenuator is true. You can count the steps and know exactly where it's at every time. I would try the trick with the resistors first. 'Gold Point' is a high quality manufacturer and has a page describing exactly how this can be accomplished in detail.