Hi George:
EAR 834P is the best I've heard, but has to be used to be under $1000. Very warm full sound with deep rich bass. If you find one without the Moving Coil transformers it's OK; it will be cheaper and those transformers aren't very good anyway. Replace the tubes with Gold Lions if noisy. If you like something a bit brighter sounding the Graham Slees are very good. PS Audio NuWave is excellent especially with MC's and can digitize LP's to very high rez, but used price more than $1K.
- Jack