best phono stage under 10k

I now have a couple hundred hours on Herron ( in addition to factory breakin ) and can attest it is indeed a fine sounding and very well built product. In my system it is hyper quiet. Less than $3.5k delivered.
keith is a super nice guy also.

just rolled in two RCA NOS 1960’s NJ production from Andy at Vintage Tube.... fun

enjoy the music.

@tomic601   I've had zero luck rolling tubes in my Herron...I always go back to the stock EHs that Keith provided to get the best sound.  Sounds like you're enjoying the RCAs?  Presumably in the 1st gain stage?

@three easy payments....

not so far...the RCA re bright, glare, no depth of image....#$&@$#—— This from a tube that is IMO a sonic wonder in a Croft RIAA +

yes in the first gain block....

back to made in Russia we go after a scant few album sides..

The steelhead has plenty of gain for my benz using the mm input.   I've tried it both ways and far and away prefer using the mm input and have no gain issues.

And I do believe the mc input runs the signal through a step up transformer.  However, every time I've tried using it I've switched back to the mm input.  I've used a number of different lo mc cartridges with it.