Looking for phono preamp suggestions

prob not the answer you want hear, but if you want the improvements you say you want. i would suggest moving to a better dynavector cart - like an xx2 or tkr, or a lyra or AT art9

your ayre px5e is not an artifically sweet sounding unit but it very clean very smooth, no harshness at all, you could go zesto or chinook or another tube pre but it may well introduce noise - your noise floor is VERY low right now, don’t screw that up

instead, get a sweeter cartridge that resolves detail and images better and has more subtly

I’ve owned too many p-stages to count, and I think my Audio Research REF 3 blows away anything else I’ve heard.  Tubey in a good way: involving, high def, dimensional, but surprisingly authoritative.  Injects life into the sound.  Like a Chinook tonally, but with bass and jump factor.  I paid $10k for a demo model.  No affiliation.  

I second the recommendation for a BAT phono stage.   An all balanced design, from input through to the output.  There are several models to choose from ranging from $3K to $12,500.  I own BAT electronics and they are fabulous.  Read up on their website at balanced.com to become more acquainted with their design philosophy.  The sound quality is exquisite and they are built exceptionally well.  I have gone through several great systems in my time and my current BAT products are certainly about the best I have ever owned.
Good luck, and do enjoy the music.

Check out Sutherland. That’s all he makes. I recently got a modest model and had some questions/needed an upgrade and Ron Sutherland himself helped me. Doesn’t care where his box has been purchased -he will support it. I think his models go from $900-$16,500. I think his and Van den Hul are top options.

Sutherland does not have balanced input and output . They use the same tech as the grail .  Still deciding between boulder 1008/1108 and the grail sb/sb