Best Phone Stage for under $1,000.000

Assuming a MM preamp is enough for your needs , there are many who swear by the Transcendent Sound vacuum tube phono preamp for $999 assembled or $699 as a kit . Some swear it's his best sounding product as well .

Another vote for the Jd9.  Out of The box it’s pretty good; with great tubes (brimar), modified caps and op amps... way above what you’d expect at the price point.   A bit much on the gain, so a quality attenuator helps a lot.

So there ya have it. 25 responses, and almost as many choices.

I haven’t heard a word about it, but worth looking into is Frank Van Alstine’s $599 stand-alone phono amp. Alstine’s an excellent designer, one who took a look at the ARC SP-3, found what he considered correctable flaws, and came up with cures for that pre’s RIAA inaccuracy, non-linearity, and power supply weakness.

Yep, Frank is da man.