For me, vinyl sounds much more alive with tubes than it does with transistors. I would highly recommend looking at the Don Sachs phono preamp. Adding an internal SUT for your cart would push just over budget but worth saving the extra couple $ for. These do pop up on the used market a bit as well.
Now, if you happen to be handy with a soldering iron and want to build a simple kit, the same basic design is sold through Tubes4HiFi at a small price of $800 as a kit, or $1150 assembled. No premium parts yet like the Don Sachs, but a fantastic starting point. Also have cost effective SUT available to go with.
I went the kit route, went over the top on a lot of parts and full DIY chassis, and I think I’m still just around the $2k mark. I did document a few things with some final photos and impressions on Audiocircle. Lloyd’s build thread So yeah, you can have a very good affordable unit that plays right up there with a Manley or Modwright any day, and you could tune your build parts however you see fit.
Hope you find something fun that keeps your toes tapping.
-Lloyd