Back to vinyl need phono stage help!

Jim, you really want to stay away from all these cottage industry players. Here today, gone tomorrow. Wooden chassis on a phono stage? They have to be out of their minds.
The best inexpensive phono stage going, hands down is the Parasound JC 3 Jr. JC stands for John Curl a legendary engineer whose creations are legendary. Check out the reviews and go hear one if you can. It is an amazing piece for the money and has the sound you want. Parasound is a very well established company that will be around for a long time. You get a lot more for your money with them than with all this fly by night other stuff. The Sutherland is OK but it is not a JC 3 Jr. If John Curl signs off on it, it is going to be a great unit. 

Lots of good choices listed here.

If you really do want to stick to your $1500 price point, as mentioned above, the Parasound JC3 Jr is a fantastic option.  

Lehmann Black Cube SE is another great choice (and closer to your $1000 number).

(Parasound and Lehmann dealer disclaimer)

@goldprintaudio I respectfully disagree about the Parasound JC3. Had it and first it was a bit noisy and second sound wise it didn’t do anything special. The Gold Note PH10 was sooooo much better sonically YMMV.

+1 for the Rega Aria. Also consider the Chord Huei. Both retail for about $1.5k and can ofter be found used for less.

I had the Gold Note PH-10 with the PSU-10 power supply, but I recently switched to the Elac Alchemy PPA-2. The Gold Note is great, but I had some electrical issues with it (stopped connecting to the external power supply) and getting service in the US is really difficult. I also found the MC to be pretty noisy, but I'm not sure if that was just my unit. Couldn't get a consistent response from the US distributor, so was never able to get them to check it out. The Elac Alchemy is a steal at $1000. Two inputs, variable loading with a built in ohm meter for exact setting, and the MC setting is almost silent.