Best Phone Stage for under $1,000.000


What is the best phono stage for under $1.000.00?
billm143
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.
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.
The OP asked a legit Q (without obvious typos), yet folks offer no substantive advice other than poke fun at his title. Some might consider posting something useful to the OP.

In fairness, the OP should specify what he means about “best” and the expected service needs for cartridges (MM, MC or MI?; output voltage needs?).