Best budget phono preamp for Unison Unico?

Rebbi, in my experience, tubes offer more realism and three dimensional spaciousness than transistors. I find this to be especially true with phono stages.

In my opinion, the Bottlehead Seduction is the best bang for the buck you can get for less than $300. It has a stellar reputation, but it only has 36 dB gain. You'll need to match it with a high output cartridge (2.5mV or more) or a step up device if you use LOMC.

http://www.bottlehead.com/et/adobespc/Seduction/seduction.htm

Mingles,

Well,the consensus here seems to be, "Get your hands on a good tube preamp and don't even mess with the Unico board."

The bottlehead seduction looks cool, but I've never soldered anything in my life, so I'm a little intimidated.

Hi Rebbi, I understand the intimidation, but it's an easy kit to build - some would call it fun. You'll need a 40 watt soldering iron and some silver-bearing solder. You can get both of these from Radio Shack for less than $15. You'll also need a pair of wire cutters. Pliers will be handy to bend the leads.

From the Bottlehead site:

Assembly is a one or two evening affair, designed for the builder with minimal level soldering experience in mind... A very thorough assembly manual is included, containing step by step printed instructions you check off as you go, detailed photos of the chassis underside and components. All the builder needs to supply is solder. As with our other kits the Bottlehead Forum serves as the builders online tech support resource, with literally hundreds of experienced builders participating to help you with your questions.

Here's an excellent option that doesn't require building anything:
Jolida JD9 Mullard Tubes

Mingles,

Yes, I've seen that option. Thing is, opinion on the JD-9 here on Audiogon seems to a little mixed.