Phono preamp or SUT for low output moving coil

You could get BOTH Hagerman’s Piccolo ZERO (transimpedance) and Piccolo MC (voltage drive) head-amps brand new for just over $500 and be covered for virtually any cartridge’s needs in the future (and already mentioned, "transimpedance" is not a good match for every cart, like Benz Ruby / LPS, VdH Colibri, or that Denon). Pick your favorite MM stage to pair them with, especially tubes.

Synergistic parings are hard to nail down for any given cartridge & system (ad the MC stage is where it matters most!), but these units generally sound very good and are much more flexible than the typical SUT. I’ve gotten particularly amazing sonic results from the little ZERO paired with Koetsu Blue Lace Diamond and Ortofon SPU Classic GE Mk II. The lower the output, the more efficient the ZERO is at amplification, as long as its coil impedance is going down proportionally (like with the SPU). The voltage-mode Piccolo is just a good basic head-amp - I find Hagerman's offerings here typically a bit warmer and more musical than you'd find in e.g. Herron or Audio Research, but with the caveat being a bit higher noise floor than average.  

At their prices, just add them to your toolkit lol. It’s also a good baseline to determine whether a fancy expensive SUT has good synergy to your cart or not.

@viridian Thanks for pointing that out.  Do you have any idea what would be considered low impedance? Sutherland's website doesn't give a range. I'm using a Hana ML cartridge and it works well.  I checked with Ron Sutherland before I bought the TZ Vibe. 

Dear @Viridian: Neither the Van den Hul Grasshopper II.

@dcaudio  , do it a favor and stay away of transimpedance/current phono stage designs instead your choice most be for voltage phono stage designs. SUT always is an inferior choice against an active high gain pgono stage design.

You can look for the PS Audio Stellar that outperforms any MM/SUT combination (tube or SS ) .

PS Audio Stellar Phono phono preamplifier Page 2 | Stereophile.com

and Fremer compared against the CH P1/X1, Ypsilon and others ( with prices over 20-30 times the humble PS Audio price tag. ) using top SAT tonearm and Caliburn TT and cartridges of the caliber of Lyra Atlas SL.

Obviously is interesting to read the M.Fremer review including the real time measurements page.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

@viridian Thank you for the information.  Good to know.