You may want to take this with a grain of salt as I am a dealer for Atma-Sphere, but also consider I was a satisfied customer for several years previous.
The MP-3 is a nice preamp and a good value for the money. As for options I would somewhat agree. I did the power upgrade and V-caps only in the line section, not phono section. Regarding power cords I would say if you enjoy listening to them swap them out to your hearts content. I find just using a good quality power cord did the trick for me. The idea that the MP-3 is sensitive to power cords is well....
As for the phono section being noisy that is system dependent. It will depend on the sensitivity of your speakers, the type of cartridge you are using, and the tubes in the phono section, among other things. With MM/MI cartridges there is very little noise with my 94 dB speakers and virtually none with my 86 dB speakers. With LOMC even with 0.2 mV cartridges the noise level is very acceptable. The key is to use the tubes supplied by the manufacturer. NOS tubes I tried from reputable sources were noisier. BTW, you will also want to get a balanced tonearm cable to further take advantage of the sonic benefits and low noise operation of the preamp.
FWIW before going down this path I would evaluate this preamp not just on some of the items you mentioned, but on how it may fit into your entire system. That is where people like Ralph Karsten and your local Atma-Spherer dealer can help.
The MP-3 is a nice preamp and a good value for the money. As for options I would somewhat agree. I did the power upgrade and V-caps only in the line section, not phono section. Regarding power cords I would say if you enjoy listening to them swap them out to your hearts content. I find just using a good quality power cord did the trick for me. The idea that the MP-3 is sensitive to power cords is well....
As for the phono section being noisy that is system dependent. It will depend on the sensitivity of your speakers, the type of cartridge you are using, and the tubes in the phono section, among other things. With MM/MI cartridges there is very little noise with my 94 dB speakers and virtually none with my 86 dB speakers. With LOMC even with 0.2 mV cartridges the noise level is very acceptable. The key is to use the tubes supplied by the manufacturer. NOS tubes I tried from reputable sources were noisier. BTW, you will also want to get a balanced tonearm cable to further take advantage of the sonic benefits and low noise operation of the preamp.
FWIW before going down this path I would evaluate this preamp not just on some of the items you mentioned, but on how it may fit into your entire system. That is where people like Ralph Karsten and your local Atma-Spherer dealer can help.