You will probably find it impossible to buy a stand alone phono stage that doesn't sound a lot better than what you have now. That said, you mentioned budget, and you already know the value of tweaks, so you ought to know where this is going. You're not talking about buying a phono stage. You're talking about buying a phono stage, power cord, interconnect, and fuse. At the very least. Cones. Shelf. Whatever you put the phono stage on, or put on the phono stage- or both.
Also with regard to phono stages, there is probably nothing else other than maybe speakers where there is such a huge range of not only performance but sound. What I mean is that unlike say a CDP or DAC, or two amps, all of which sound so much alike that a lot of people can't even hear any differences at all, with a phono stage they are all very different, a lot of them dramatically so.
What this means is its really important to audition. I had to drag about a dozen of the darn things home before the Audio Research PH3SE that I could actually live with. It wasn't dark like the EAR, nor hyped and etched like the Linn. It was a lot of work but worth it because it wound up making me very happy for the next 20 years. After which time as testament to its value it was sold for $1k, from $2500 new, pretty darn good after 20 years.
The other interesting thing about phono stages, unlike other components where you can spend to infinity and always find better with phono stages you can spend to $3k and find the Herron and be done. So keep that in mind.
My first suggestion would be you spend a few hours poring over reviews. Six Moons, Stereophile, like that. Not here. "The $649 Symphonic Bombast is great!" means nothing. You need to read, and read carefully. Pay attention to what cartridge is used and what that reviewer says about that cartridge. All analog positively slays digital but some its not even funny how good it is and there is even some that can be flat out magic, and I'm not talking for a fortune either. The challenge is figuring out what and how to put it together.
Then the next suggestion is you be willing to stretch a little. With CD this isn't worth it at all, they're crap from the get-go and all come with built-in obsolescence. With analog, well my phono stage was 20 years, my turntable is now 15, etc. But then I followed my own advice and put in the hours finding the right stuff.
So you stretch and then even with crap power cord and interconnect it will still be magic compared to what you have. Then later when you can you "upgrade" it with a much better interconnect. Power cord. By stretching with the stage you got something that really good wire will reveal even more its strengths, instead of the weaknesses you would hear with a lesser stage. Or worse, you would be tempted to follow the self-defeating advice everyone else gives and "system match" which really boils down to using wire as band-aids and make-up to correct faults in one area by adding faults in another.
Yeah. I know. But people actually do this.
Good work with the tweaks. The BQ Fuse is awesome. Keep it up.
