Curl or Pass

Herron, Manley, Sutherland, PS Audio, Pathos Acoustics, Zestos Audio, Gold Note, 

I am a MI guy and love my Icon Audio PS2 pure tube phono section. 

I would also recommend Herron, occasionally come up used around your budget. Check with Herron dealers; they may offer a discount on new units.

I like both, but IMHO neither attains the level of Curl's older Vendetta design (I don't believe that the parts are available to replicate those, although a variant was used in the CTC Blowtorch preamp.

@wspohn wrote:

"I like both, but IMHO neither attains the level of Curl's older Vendetta design (I don't believe that the parts are available to replicate those, although a variant was used in the CTC Blowtorch preamp."  

Completely agree.  JC's Vendetta series are very good.  Might be his life's very best work. 

Some of the FET-based designs suffer from short-cuts in the modern FET manufacturing process.