If boulder is tops what is second tier?

Raul sez:

you must to have a wider budget and if you don't have it a this time my advise is that you wait a little till you have a serious money for a serious phono...

I would generally agree; maybe a diy (if you're into that sort of thing) would be an interim and affordable solution for now. Or modding an existing unit --for example people have improved on the EAR.

Speaking of branded finished goods out there, I can mention certain units that were in the "superior" league (i.e. better than a "good phono" that has some magical strengths and a few weaknesses):
*FM acoustics: undoubtedly one of the best I've heard, and very versatile. The "cheap" offering must cost ~10-12k (?). It's "cheaper" because it's single-ended input (not balanced).
*Manley Steelhead; see above
*Clearaudio "reference" s/thing or other -- the one that comes as two mono boxes each with an external PS.
*A Goldmund stand alone from ~8yrs back. It was also included in certain pre's they sold back then (one being the Mimesis 7.1 or s/thing close).

Now, there are many I've heard and do not wish to go into here. There are also many I haven't heard and can mention two here: the latest Aesthetics, for example (see Albert above); the Dartzeel (see Mike, above).

It seems that the only way to have a great phono within financial reason is to diy; but, unless you're ready to research, you need an excellent schematic...
Coming to think of it, try Raul above -- send him a case of wine, maybe it'll work: he has built a good one:)

I would put the Einstein up against any of them, not just because I'm a dealer.
Brian

Again I want to thank you all for the help, I am really into the analog portion of my system.
Yes Rauliruegas I know $3k is not much but I beleive that there are many phonopreamps out there that can be bought used at this price range that will compete with or come close enough to the best, for example: Xono, Herron, Evan's The Groove, E.A.R. 324, JLTI, K&K and so on.
Would I be asking too much if I asked the a-goners here to make a short list of 3 or so phonopreamps that deserve to be mentioned?
I now own the E.A.R. 834p and cannot believe how goood it is and that means also how good the sysytem as a whole is.
I would like to push the envelope to a higher level.
Am I missing something here or am I making sense?

I've owned the Lamm and Audio Research Reference and replaced them with the Shindo Giscours pre with built in phono. To mey ears it wasn't even close. Works extremely well with my Zyx UNIverse cartridge.

Since you have recently made other changes to your system and you also state that your think your current phono preamp is quite good, I would recommend you leave things alone for awhile. Give yourself a chance to really get to know the strenghts and weaknesses of your current setup before making any changes.

But then again, assuming you ignore my above advice, $3k is plenty of money to spend on a phono stage. It will not buy you state of the art, nor even the next best, but it will buy you a very high quality phono preamp.