Suggestions for phono preamp for LOMC's


I am looking for a phono preamp that will work with LOMC cartridges.   Budget up to $2500 but would be quite happy spending significantly less.  I have about $10k invested in my table/arm so any appropriate suggestions would be appreciated.   New or used would be fine.

bobheinatz

But does the Modwright use a built in SUT in order to achieve adequate gain for an LOMC, or not?

@lewm No SUT. Just the tubes, including a rectifier tube. You can check the Modwright web site for info about the models currently in production and get a sense of the design approach taken. 

With $2.5K for a purchase of a Phononstage, it can be said a Prudent investigation of the Market Place could discover a Phon' not too many years old, that could have been a Phon' with a $7Kish price tag when released to the Market Place.

I have seen phon's costing over $10K when first Marketed, where the selling price is for approx' $3K +/- . That as a Phon' will not be classed as a Old Design by any means, just an obsolete model from the Manufacturer, where the latest model might have a few differences to the Topology and Chassis Design.  

@theflattire Modwright’s older SWP 9.0 and 9,0 SE did not use a SUT. The models you cite are current production models. As a 2008 review in Positive Feedback points out, no transformers are used in the audio circuit. The gain on the MC setting is 68 db. You can run 0.5 mV cartridges effectively on the MM setting. I’ve done it. Here’s a link to the review article. 

https://positive-feedback.com/Issue36/modwright_9.htm