If boulder is tops what is second tier?

I've owned the Lamm and Audio Research Reference and replaced them with the Shindo Giscours pre with built in phono. To mey ears it wasn't even close. Works extremely well with my Zyx UNIverse cartridge.

Since you have recently made other changes to your system and you also state that your think your current phono preamp is quite good, I would recommend you leave things alone for awhile. Give yourself a chance to really get to know the strenghts and weaknesses of your current setup before making any changes.

But then again, assuming you ignore my above advice, $3k is plenty of money to spend on a phono stage. It will not buy you state of the art, nor even the next best, but it will buy you a very high quality phono preamp.

Albert you always have good directions, advise and at times a very interesting experiences you have shared with other members here on the AudioGon in the past...I would like to add a recent experience with a V.P.I. tonearm and junction box wired with Nordost Valhalla.The newly designed arm turned out to be a huge leap in performance over the older design. After along thorough burn in of the wire,I thought the next step was to carry on with more Nordost wire from the junction box to the phono section of my preamp. I expected some better results. However what I did not expect was another MAJOR leap in performance...This single interconnect change literally transformed my system...Wires make a difference all right. The right ones in the right place.

Thank you Stiltskin.

I'm not surprised that a quality rig like that responded positively to a high quality cable. Perhaps someday it will be considered "common knowledge" and all audiophiles will be vindicated for having heard the difference :^).

I hope you're enjoying your music more than ever. It's an emotional high when you're listening to one of your favorite tunes and hear things you never knew existed.

You mentioned a lot of nice phono preamps. You might want to add the Hagerman Trumpet to the list if you're set on buying one to replace the EAR 834P. Then again, if its Steelhead or ASR Basis territory you're eventually shooting for, maybe sending the EAR off to Mitch Singerman for mods will allow you get even more pleasure from a phono stage you already like, while giving you some more time to save up for the big purchase.