Looking for the best Preamp with a phono circuit built in

Give some thought to a VAC Renaissance mk5 with phono as a final preamplifier purchase. Sounds great and mates very well with solid state or tube amplifiers, for present and future versatility. 

The Van Alstine would be a good choice.  So would a used Audio Research SP6 series or SP8 if you want tubes, since AR located near you could update them and still come in at a reasonable cost.  These have some of the finest sounding phono stages ever (although MM only).  I can't give you much advice on solid state, but have a used early Carver in my second system that punches way above its weight.

dB Systems would be a great choice for solid state. 

My Deja Vu preamp has a great MC phono section.  I also use a rebuilt Heathkit 151 built by Sams Audio that has a mc & mm phono section.  Nothing lacking here either.  

I’ve gone back to SE RCA’ed designs, but my heart lingers for that balanced purest design.

Single-ended circuits tend to feature the 2nd harmonic as their primary distortion component.

Balanced circuits, because they cancel even-ordered harmonics, tend to feature the 3rd harmonic as their primary distortion component.

The ear treats the 2nd and 3rd about the same- they add to 'lushness".

But circuits that have the 3rd as their main distortion component overall tend to have considerably less distortion- and this continues into the higher ordered harmonics. They don't just have less of the even orders, they have less of the odd orders too. That 3rd harmonic is at a level that is often 1/10th of the level of 2nd you see in single-ended circuits.


So **generally** speaking, balanced circuits tend to be overall lower distortion and because the ear treats all forms of distortion as some sort of tonality (often favoring that tonality over actual frequency response) balanced circuits tend to sound more neutral- more transparent and more musical overall.