Pre-Preamp?

What’s your budget? You need a phono preamp for MC. The general consensus is that the Herron VTPH-2A is top of the game at the lower end of the higher end pricing. Next down is the Manley Chinook.

HI Dave- the Prima Luna Dialog Pre has NO phono stage at all, so you need to get a separate phono stage, another pair of interconnects, and a power cord in order to use your turntable with that preamp.  Take a look at a Rogue RP-5 which does have a good phono stage built in that will handle your cartridge without all the extra cables and hassle.

If by preamp you mean phono stage then: Herron VTPH-2A

+1 on this, it has up to 60db of gain, a few of my customers have these with my passive preamp, say it’s the best their vinyl has sounded..

Cheers George

Thank you all for your responses. I'm looking at the specs and reviews of the Herron VTPH-2A (see: http://www.herronaudio.com/vtph2specs.html ) and am impressed. It seems that this would be great into the PrimaLuna for analog and my DAC into the PrimaLuna for digital. I'll admit this is becoming expensive for a 70 year old (me, I mean). My SP-11 is 33 years old so how much is that in pre-amp years? LOL.