Price range? What's your table, cart, arm combo? I'm fond of my Manley Chinook. If you have more to spend, I hear the Allnic H1201 is really nice. At under $1k, I'd go with a Ray Samuel's Nighthawk F-117.
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I was thinking $1000 or less.
TT, tonearm and cartridge are TBD. |
If you can find a used Pass Aleph Ono, I heartily recommend that |
Anything by Tom Evans or EAR. Clearaudio and Pass Labs are also great recommendations. |
+1 For the Tom Evans, we had a big 10 phono stage shootout at one of our audio society meetings, it won out by a big way, the one came in second was along way behind. Cheer George |
Van Alstine phono is 500 bucks and very good . |
Good used Hagerman Cornet II
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Pretty sure the Liberty is over $1000. |
Go to the Analog Room in your hood to at least get an idea of what you're getting into. Your cartridge and preamplifier will have a great deal to do with the range of gain you may require.
Beware, indoor cigar smoking takes place at the Room.
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I own a Klyne 6PE and I think it's an option to consider, if you can find a used one (which should be under $1000, I believe). |
TW Acustic phono is the best.. |
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Try the LEEMA? It's supposed to be very good, and it's under 1K. |
Herron vtph 2 does kick ass but is out of the op's budget. If I were shopping in that range I would buy the bottlehead Eros at $700. In fact someone compared it to the vtph2 and it was only a whisker behind. I built the bottlehead Beepre and it is the best preamp I have ever heard with a few mods and some upgraded tubes. |
I think Sutherland makes really good ones around $1000 or less. I have a PH3D and so far so good. I can't compare it to higher $$$ pre's because I have never owned one. |
Tons of phono amps out there under a grand,,,and im no expert as I do digital most the time.Having said that I really like the new Jasmine 2.5du ,two piece unit,the build quality is fantastic.I upgraded the caps with Mundorf but into it for under $700 new.I liked it better than the Lehmann,Musical surroundings I tried. |
For my money, the Sutherland at a kilobuck is hard to beat. The quietest background I have heard on a phono stage at or near this price. Very revealing and large soundstage with tube like sound, except it has more bottom end punch than tube phono stages.
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Almost forgot the model I was talking about, the Sutherland Ph3d.
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