Recommendation for tube preamp

+1 on the Rogue RP1. It was a great pair to my Mac 240. Strangely less so with my Rogue Atlas Magnum III. But overall a wonderful pre-amp

I owned a BAT VK-5i ages ago; did not like it. It was also hell finding 6922 tubes quiet enough to use. Each time a 5i comes up for sale I’m gob-smacked to see its ask price close to what I paid 18 years ago. I’ve owned so much wonderful gear, far superior, that depreciates like a rock off a cliff and somehow this 5i still commands good money - makes no sense to me! If looking at BAT at least go for a 6H30 model - those are great preamp tubes. 6922 are a PITA. 

Had an older hybrid ARC preamp (think SP-9) in a shootout some years ago - it lost handily to every single Rogue preamp on hand (Metis, 99 Magnum, Athena). Etched and tonally lean. The Sonic Frontiers entry-level line stage fared equally poorly. The modern ARC preamps (Ref 6) are wonderful, like from a completely different world - but expensive! The Rogue Athena clobbered everything in that old shootout, and are in your price range when they come up - but the ones with the stepped attenuator aren’t the smoothest ergonomic experience.

Sometimes older VAC preamps come up in this range - probably a good option. Not sure I’m a huge fan of the modern Rogue RP-series preamps, but better than ancient ARC and BAT models.

Only buy equipment that you can audition at home.

jlbkmb1958

Is there any such thing as a balanced fully tube phono amp?

Yes.

 Doesn’t the balance require some solid state components in the signal path?

No.

Only buy equipment that you can audition at home.

That eliminates the vast majority of secondary markets, like audiogon. Besides, some of the best lessons come from mistakes.