Good Sounding Inexpensive Phono Preamp?

Creek also makes a decent phono preamp in this price range, and there is also a small unit from England called the Gram Amp which has gotten positive reviews. However, if your budget will stretch a bit, I'd explore buying a used Lehmann Audio Black Cube. The earlier versions of this phono preamp were quite highly regarded by a number of reviewers, and can be purchased used for around $300-350. (The newer SE version, with the expanded power supply, is a better unit, but costs about $250 more.)

Honesty compels me to say that I am not totally impartial here. I own the Black Cube SE, and have been extremely pleased with it. However, I think the Black Cube is better suited for use with either moving magnet cartridges (3-6 mV), or high output moving coils (in the 1 - 1.5 mV range).

For other ideas about phono preamps, you might go to the following link to Audio Advisor's Web site:
http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/categorylisting.asp?hdnCat=Phono+Preamps&sel=1&CategoryID=45

Those will all do the job. I think that you might also look at the Hagerman Bugle. It can be battery powered or with an optional power supply. Hagerman build some nice phono stages.

I'm really really happy with my Channel Islands (CI Audio) VPP-1. Audiogon user "underwoodwally" sells them - call for pricing (unit is under $300). It was an enormous improvement over the Parasound P/PH100 I used to own.

Research the following company/products online (reviews @ TNT, etc.).

http://www.gspaudio.co.uk/index.htm