What separate tube phono stage do you use ?

Chakster, these tubes have made my phono sound better than twice the price; yes, the tubes cost more than the phono, but they're worth it.


          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g2VhyU69Og



As everyone knows, Audio Research makes nice preamps; I borrowed one of their SS amps, and it was thumbs down immediately, I don't know if they still make SS amps.

Inna, you will have the ultimate phono if you get this one;


      https://www.fmacoustics.com/products/phono-linearizers/fm-223/

Inna ,
You probably are already familiar with these separate tube phono preamps , but I have not seen these mentioned yet.
Audio Note M1-RIAA  or  M2 RIAA 
Conrad Johnson TEA2

@orpheus10 

As everyone knows, Audio Research makes nice preamps; I borrowed one of their SS amps, and it was thumbs down immediately, I don't know if they still make SS amps.  

Nelson Pass discovered some amazing transistors, tube lovers blown away. Read more aboit SIT transistor here. Another one is Silicon Carbide (SiC) JFET here.  

Personally i am more happy with SS preamp (Pass Labs Aleph L and First Watt B1), SS phono stages (Gold Note PH-10 and JLTi) and SS power amps (First Watt F2J). 

Some of my rare tubes in my ex WLM amp. It was a great amp and great NOS tubes. I don't use tube amps anymore, but still have some amazing vintage tubes. I bet you can recognize military Telefunken E84L? Ok, how about some of the rarest japanese tubes (the small ones on this picture). Matsushita AMS 12at7WA GOLD PINS, the round logo and seamed top is a dead giveaway. Military contract, I'd bet, based on the gold pins and 3 micas. The top is domed and has gold pins. Is this extremely rare vintage high-end design. Interesting tube! I believe they call that a "pinched waist", and it was done to promote mechanical stability of the internals for low microphonics. Tubes with pinched waists go for serious $$$. Matsushita tube facilities in Japan was made by British Mullard! Tube lovers, imagine how good those military 12at7WA GOLD can be? I haven't seen tubes after 1960 with a pinched waist. Pinched waist tubes have an indented ring around the middle portion of the glass tube. They're quite rare, and thus quite expensive. The most well known pinched waist tubes are from Philips Heerlen and Valvo Hamburg. They were made mid to end 50s and have the glass pinched around the top mica spacer. I assume this was done to fight microphony.

 

Chakster, I would have to hear the amp for myself, but it sounds very interesting.

Although NOS tubes are expensive, I would never purchase any that were even more expensive as a result of  "exclusivity".