Preamp for VPI Prime 21 turntable $300-800

I have a copy of the Paragon 12 that Trevor Lees built in small quantities in Australia. Real nice tube preamp with two outboard power supplies - one per channel!

@jasonbourne52 

After reading many of your posts it seems that you have a storehouse of equipment.  Yet, you don’t post a system.  I get it.  Must be same reason that you never start a thread.  Anyway, appreciate your wide ranging experience with gear.

@vonhelmholtz Audiogon prohibits @jasonbourne52 from posting his system out of fear of blowing out cloud storage. Plus @jasonbourne52 will spend the remainder of his life just typing all that 💩 in.
If he sold off his collection I bet he could gather enough dough to build a really nice system!

@classicalguy starting price point for a phono stage to match that set up should be at least $2000. McIntosh MP100, Sutherland. Up from there is Pass, Audio Research etc

The quality of your phono stage is extremely critical. Worry about components first. Then whenever you get around to it, cables. 

 Thank you everyone here for your input. As you all said, I probably need spend more money in my audio system.