The Ear Yoshino 324 and the Wavac LCR-X2: natural sound!! Préamps with phono stage: Metronome C6, Ear Yoshino 868 and 912. Wavac PRT-1: best I ever heard.
Find a used Lamm LP2.1. I've listened to dozens of phono preamps and that fits your budget and is quiet and handles low output MCs. Also sounds better than anything else I've heard.
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