Shindo pre + buget amp or Leben amp + budget pre

That is a very nice system you are putting together!

I have a Shindo Aurieges-L in one of my systems and a Leben RS28-CX in another. Both are excellent but I have changed my thinking and now slightly prefer the Shindo to the Leben. I would recommend the Aurieges and the best phono stage you can afford to get the most out of your Amadeus. I believe most other Shindo owners would recommend that you eventually get an appropriate Shindo amp as well to reap the musical benefits of an all Shindo system. I know I am in the minority but neither of my Shindo preamps are paired with a Shindo amp. My Aurieges is a great match to my Bedini 25/25 driving a pair of Omega Super 8 Alnico XRS, and a friend of mine has in the past very much enjoyed using first an Aurieges and more recently a Monbrison paired with a Levinson 334 to drive his Gibbon 9s. So there are two of what I suspect are many examples of Shindo preamps working well with non-Shindo amps.

What ICs and speaker cable are you using? Many Shindo owners like Auditorium 23 to fill those needs.

Given your two stated choices(both good) I`d go with the Shindo. There`s more ultimate potential to build from IMO.

Thanks for the feedback. I might have to go budget with the ICs and speaker cable and upgrade later ... I was thinking Anti cables.

Knowing only the TT and cart combination first-hand, I would still say spend on the preamp and phono stage now, upgrade downstream later.

Have to agree with 4musica44107, that is a seriously nice system you are building, one I'd love to hear. IMHO you'll have the best time now with the bucks concentrated at the source. It's just more fun to listen that way than the other way round, and that TT can deliver as much fun as you let it.