Looking for phono preamp suggestions

@newtoncr:
I have forgotten to mention that I listened to a couple of phono stages before and also owned some of them .....incl. Aesthetix Rhea, ARC PH 5, PS Audio GCPH, ARC Ref.PH 2, Trigon, Jadis, etc. - they all didn't give me quite what you are looking for - sweetness/magic/romance .....the Octave Phono Module delivered exactly these things plus black background and less noise overall.....and tremendous flexibility!

Best,
Carlo

I have been using two phono stages from Whest Audio in England.  I have a customized PS30 RDT SE 2019 and it just blew several other phono stages I had been testing.  It's Single in Balanced out, but James may be able to customize the input if you were interested.  

I would suggest that you read his website customer reviews, there are hundreds and you can get the flavor of what each of these customers had been using prior to buying the Whest preamp, you'll get an idea of how these perform against many other preamps out there.

Agree with slimpikins5-  Whest stages are great. James is easy to work with. Very good VFM and provide a very clean, dynamic insight into what's on the record. I was a Titan Pro user for years but have recently upgraded to the MC Ref V - it's whole new world....

Don Sachs makes and excellent phono stage.  He builds them one at a time.  He is known for repairing vintage tube gear.  I would be willing to bet he would build you a Balanced phono stage.