Phono Preamp Selection

If you like old vintage stuff, tubes are the way to go. As mentioned, look used. You can often find older ARC phono stages for a song. There are others. ASR tends to be full of blowhards that have little concept of actual music so it would seem. Take the “reviews” with a grain of salt.

Might be a tad over your budget but I'd recommend a used Tavish Vintage

“I reviewed (Pro-ject Phono Box DC MM/MC  / Cambridge Audio Duo / IFI Zen / Schitt Skoll ).”

By reviewed are we to understand that a review was read or were these units auditioned?

I had a couple of Projects and they were good products. I even bought the $129 one while my regular one was being repaired and it was not bad at all. I don’t think you could go wrong with any of them. 

Look at the Lounge Audio LCR MK III.  Standard is $410, Silver (upgrades) version is $610.   I bought the Gold version, and it’s is amazing for my Thorens TT and Audio Technica MM cartridge.  Reviews of the standard version are quite good.  Hand made here in the USA.  
 

https://www.loungeaudio.com/lcr-series