Which phonostage is a heavenly match for a XV-1S

Ecka,
THE BEST PHONO-STAGE (never mind heavenly :-) is one that is **INSIDE** a good line-stage.

No extra cables, connector plugs, different power supplies, doubled up gain-stages, etc.

That will make your pickings a lot easier in deed. And there are some you should consider.

If you want to do it RIGHT, I'd say consider going all the way.
Cheers,
Axel

Ecka, I have compared the Einstein phono stage with the Manley Steelhead, the Vendetta Research, and the phono stage that is built into the darTZeel full-function preamp. I also compared the Steelhead with the Lamm LP2 that I had previously owned as my reference phono stage prior to the Steelhead.

My tonearm is RCA wired but, I was wondering if the benefits of the Einstein balanced version would still be evident if I got a very high quality short Rca to Balanced adapter made.
Can the Einstein accept 2 phone inputs as I have a second turntable ?

Kondo M7 Phono + Kondo SF-z, not cheap, but final

Don't discount Dynavector's own stage. I've become less a fan of mixing and matching "best" components assembled from high-end magazine lists, and more a fan of common-sense "synergistic" or at least engineered and tested combinations.

So, consider using the Dynavector stage, and the no-load setting, which is optimized for use with Dynavector cartridges (obviously). I have a 20XL, Dynavector stage, VPI Aries, and JMW 10 arm. I'm told Harry at VPI uses this exact setup for demos, and yet you won't assemble this from "Best of" lists from the magazines. Why is this so? Food for thought.