HiFi Dave told me it was...

Why anyone would want to go from a Carbon to a Bias amazes me, as the Carbon is such a self effacing all rounder, but then, I don't care for squidgy bassy vinyl sounds and I had my fill of the Bias and Elys in various forms years ago, which were so bad they were laughable in comparison with neutral vinyl sources, let alone better analogue and digital ones. The best of these Rega things is the Exact 2, and even that's a ditchwater-dull dog's dinner in current form in my experience and several planes of existence below the Apheta series, which do keep the life and soul in the recordings rather well I think I did say I don't like beefy-bassy noises from vinyl and accept others may feel differently.

Apologies. the RP1 arm can take better than these and so can the deck as a whole. I still favour the Me97Xe, but the AT120E and Nagaoka's should be considered too, the latter especially, as so many still like them. Don't change the Carbon until you have the funds saved is my recommendation. We sold many Goldring 1006 and 1012GX's back in the day and these liked the Rega deck ethos really well I remember. Mind you, the 1006 was Bias price back then (what the feck has gone on with prices and the wild disparity of different models that once cost similar money? - maybe it's me )