recommendations of phono preamps < $3000 range

Jimpittsburgh:

Did you buy the Pass after auditioning it? 

If I hadn’t wanted and bought a tube phono amp, I would have gotten myself the Liberty B2B. Really quiet, with the highest overload margin I’ve ever seen (take a look at Atkinson’s bench test report in Stereophile). According to Michael Fremer, a very "dynamic" sounding phono amp. My kinda sound!---I favour London cartridges. I may still get one; I'm putting together a second table (with the very interesting Trans-Fi Transformer arm), and a separate amp for it may be wise.

My brother has the Southerland and I have the Decware ZP3. Both are absolutely amazing. You really can't go wrong with either approach. I have attached links to the ZP3 and a review. Both have very low noise floors, the ZP3 is scary quiet for tubes.

http://www.decware.com/newsite/ZP3.htm
http://www.tonepublications.com/MAGPDF/TA_074.pdf

Had an avid pulsus that I really liked. Very dynamic and punchy. 

Then went to a zesto andros. Phenoninal!

You can get a used one for a great pride well under your limit. 

I had  four of them at the same time to compare in my system. The aesthetics Rea signature with a premium tube set, the Herron, the zesto and a cheap antique sound labs. 
First was the herron. Everything was just right. 
Second was the zesto. Very nice but a more distant presentation and slightly more polite. 
Third was the cheap ASL. Immediate and impactful but could be a tad harsh on the highs.  I should mention that it was heavily modded. 
Fourth was the rhea signature. Compared with the others it didn't have the detail and wasn't involving. I was shocked as it was double the price of the others. Tried both sets of tubes but no great improvement. 

If if I were the op I would call herron. Sometimes he gets trade ins that he refurbs.  If you get anything different you're just going to be looking at upgrades again in the future. It is one of the few components that I don't even think about changing anymore