Solid state or Tubes preamp phono stage.

+3 @lewm!

Bliss, I wasn’t sure of your meaning. Your statement could have been taken either as a characteristic of the Trumpet or as a blanket characteristic of tube phono stages. Thank you for the clarification.

"The Hagerman Trumpet will provide the classic tube amp sound which is known to be colored and slightly rounded on top."

Really?

@yogiboy Again, "classic" is exactly what I meant. There are "classic" tube stage sounds and what Lew characterizes as "modern" stage sounds. "Classic" was NOT intended to pigeon-hole all tube stages to be colored and slightly rounded on top. This statement was specifically to classify the Hagerman.

The point remains; each of us has to spend the time listening to a variety of components in order to figure out for onesself what constitutes audio Nirvana.  A bunch of opinions from strangers might provide an idea where to start, at best. Sometimes that means you have to spend some money that may take you in the wrong direction.  That's why we have Audiogon and other marketplaces.