Cost of Turntable vs. cost of Phono Stage

Cost is nothing, for a single turntable you can easily find great mm/mc phono stage for very modest cost, it will be a box with one input and mm/mc switch. A phono stage like this will cost no more than $700-1000 (like JLTi with RCA plug load resistors on the back), used always cheaper.

If you want a fancy box with more than one input and many additional features you can look for Gold Note PH-10 (still reasonably priced used).

So many phono stages for astonishing high prices available for those who can pay more, because some people are crazy about numbers, if they have $5k cartridge then for some reason they want a phono stage for higher price, same about turntables. This logic is nonsense, but this principle promoted by retailers/dealers who are happy to push more expensive gear, but they are living in the world of latest new gear only, and their buyers are slaves of numbers.

I decided that the first upgrade will be the phono stage because I got a deal on a not very used Black Ice Audio F159 with upgrades. Should be happy with that for a long time as it should be good enough to realize upgrades in my turntable and hopefully even speaker upgrades. Thanks again to the good advice.

 "Black Ice Audio F159 with upgrades"

Since it was developed by Fosgate, it should be decent performer. What's interesting is the cross talk feature. What is the "upgrade?" Different tubes?

I use a 10 year old Fosgate Signature. True all tube-Rectifier/gain

I have had the misfortune of choosing one mediocre phono stage after another. The only upside finally clearing above the clouds and getting one that I will keep. It is designed by John Broskie of Glassware Audio. The Aikido model that uses 8 12ax7 tubes. Overbuilt but quiet power supply. The footprint is much larger than I wanted, and right now it is not finished. In the meantime, here I am with less than what I would like.

Everybody knows that MC cartridges have different outputs. I own  

Ortofon MC 2000 with 0.05 mV output , EMT with 1 mV and many

between 0,2 - 0,4 mV. In such case there is no ''one phono-pre suits

all''. But there are phono-pres with different amplification stages.

Both my phono-pres; Basis Exlusive and Klyne 7PX3 .5  have 4

amplification stages. The ''rule'' is ''the higher  amplification =

the higher distortions''. So one should choose the lowest amplification

for the given cartridge.