Phono stage for my system?

Actually there are so many phono stages available on the market, and we have some new every year. It is hard to imagine that any of us can try them all to compare. The questions like this makes no sense, we always end up with a list of different phono stages and personal opinions, but we're all have different cartridges, completely different systems and totally different musical preferences. But more important that none of us never tried all different phono stages. In my opinion this is individual path, it is not necessary that you will like what other people recommend. 

Chakster

We all know you are right, but enjoy the debate anyway!

@sameyers1,
You should seriously look at the Whest Two in the used market. It’s based on the Whest Three, only it doesn’t have the fancy toroid external power supply in a dedicated chassis. But other wise, its not going to be too far off from the Three in performance. You can find these routinely for the $1000 budget you are trying to hit.  If you wanted to stretch things a bit, a nice used (if you can find one) Whest Three Signature will trade from $1800 to $2K and that is a steel as I have seen them go for more.

I have a new custom build 2019 Whest PS.30 RDT SE on the way from London shortly, it's being modified to accommodate my wonderful AT 20ss MM cartridge.  Nothing is changing on the MC side, it's just having the input capacitance trimmed from 91 pf down to 20 pf so that my total input capacitance will run at 150 pf to match the AT 20ss specification and James is adding in a second gain setting for the MM side.  It will have both 43 db and 46 db as I find the 46 db works out great for my system; those are the two gain settings available in the Whest Three Signature.

Dear @sameyers1 : Now you have 3 excellent options: Linn, Ayre ( really good designs by Ayre ) and the Whest.

You can't go wrong with either of those units. Maybe your budget will decides for you. Good that you already own Ayre electronics somewhere in your system.

R.

I agree the Whest is a good solid choice but I would say I have NEVER seen one for sale at anywhere near 1k, usually much closer to $1500 to $1700 for the Whest Two.
But maybe I have sleeping and missed those bargains...….