If boulder is tops what is second tier?

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.

Albert you always have good directions, advise and at times a very interesting experiences you have shared with other members here on the AudioGon in the past...I would like to add a recent experience with a V.P.I. tonearm and junction box wired with Nordost Valhalla.The newly designed arm turned out to be a huge leap in performance over the older design. After along thorough burn in of the wire,I thought the next step was to carry on with more Nordost wire from the junction box to the phono section of my preamp. I expected some better results. However what I did not expect was another MAJOR leap in performance...This single interconnect change literally transformed my system...Wires make a difference all right. The right ones in the right place.

Thank you Stiltskin.

I'm not surprised that a quality rig like that responded positively to a high quality cable. Perhaps someday it will be considered "common knowledge" and all audiophiles will be vindicated for having heard the difference :^).

I hope you're enjoying your music more than ever. It's an emotional high when you're listening to one of your favorite tunes and hear things you never knew existed.

You mentioned a lot of nice phono preamps. You might want to add the Hagerman Trumpet to the list if you're set on buying one to replace the EAR 834P. Then again, if its Steelhead or ASR Basis territory you're eventually shooting for, maybe sending the EAR off to Mitch Singerman for mods will allow you get even more pleasure from a phono stage you already like, while giving you some more time to save up for the big purchase.

While I have heard most of the top contenders several times in show settings I have not had the opportunity to listen to most of them either in my home or in a system that I know well enough to draw conclusions. In my home, I have compared the phonostage in the Crosby Spectral DMC 10Z, the Jadis outboard separate phonostage, several versions of the Vendetta Research including a SCP2T(eflon) with updated power supplies and the Curl Blowtorch with integrated phono and most recently the Einstein. In general, the Vendetta exceeded the Crosby modded Spectral and each newer version of the Vendetta was an improvement over earlier iterations with the 2Teflon being the best of the stand alone Vendetta's but the very similar phonostage in the Blowtorch being audibly better, but not earthshakingly so. The Vendetta which can often be found on the used market is very clean and fast with significant layers of detail and very good focus and staging. Think of the Vendetta as the benchmark for solid state. I recently purchased an Einstein on a friends' suggsetion. In many ways it retains the better attributes of the Vendetta but then builds on those strengths. The Einstein has better bass(tighter with more impact), more depth, more dynamics, more fully fleshed images and a warmer frequency balance that is more accurate. Undoubtedly the best which I have heard in my system. Of other units which have impressed me to date, The Aesthetics units are quite revelationary in the right system.If I had $3 to $5 to spend, I would try to audition the Einstein. For less, I woulk look for a later Vendetta.