Building my 'first' system - Advice on Phono preamp please

thanks for the Decware recommendation...looks interesting and gorgeous design. I'm going to look into it further.

dynamic_driven, yes, you want to stick with a moving magnet cartridge.
The Audio Technica VM95ML is an amazing cartridge for the money.
To not let appearances fool you. Manufacturers know many people shop with their eyes and not their ears. Warning bell should ring when you see a manufacturer clearly going out of the way to make their equipment look sharper than it really has to be. You want to spend your money on performance not fancy chassis and CNCed details especially at the lower end of the market. The great value manufacturers like NAD and Parasound go out of their way to spend as little as possible on appearance and as much as possible on the circuitry. Parasound in particular has a habit of building very reasonably priced equipment that challenges and even betters equipment costing 5 to ten times as much. 

Space tech Labs is very interesting, I owned a space tech lab and Don Allen long ago with great results. If your looking to stay under $500 used the PS Audio GCPH with volume control is a great value and if you can find one with Parts Conextion mods even better performance. The volume control is very handy and phase switch, it can also be used as a preamp. A Pass Lab Pearl 2 or a 1 if using a MM cartridge.

Maybe check out the Cambridge Audio Duo. You already have a Head amp but the Duo is very quiet and capable at a pretty incredible price for the performance. I’ve also run a TTL labs ph-01 at a point as well but the Cambridge unit will take you further. On the very budget friendly end and a great leaning experience I’d recommend briefly and laying with a cheap Rolls, it won’t be great but it’s a good leaning experience. 

Personally I would hold off on more pre-amp than the Cambridge Duo until you’re ready for more cartridge, unless you can find a used DynaVector P75 (mk3 or 4) they are a great stage, though I’ve only run MC, in phono enhanced mode.

Yes, someone could spend less ultimately by spending $10k on a endgame setup now but they’d miss out on the journey and growth of the process.

@6yo my son could competently handle an AT-OC9ML/mkII, it’s a great performer.  He’s 7 but I’m not ready to let him on the TT anymore since I loaded an AT-ART9xa. ;)

If you do try an MC make sure your platter is non-ferrous, some low end allow platters are still magnetic. :s