Best sounding phono preamp under $600

Bob, I want to add one more thing that struck me last night and that you reminded me of. Vinyl now sounds significantly better on my system than cd. This wasn't the case before the Musical Surroundings Phonomena. Most people will find budget phono preamps (like the X-LPS) to sound good. It's difficult to destroy the airiness of vinyl, but the X-LPS won't seduce you like the Phonomena. The Phonomena opens up a whole new dimension. With the exception of "An Evening with Windham Hill Live," all of the above albums were standard issue. I often buy used vinyl for one or two bucks.

If you're going to buy a new cartridge, go with the Denon DL-103R, not the standard 103. The DL-103 and 103R are leaps and bounds better than the Denon DL-160. I encourage you to read this Agon review:

Review: Denon DL 103R Cartridge
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/frr.pl?ranlg&1034089946

-Mark

Mingles: Not that I've heard it either way, but the Phonomena has an optional outboard power supply upgrade available, which as I recall Michael Fremer felt took the performance up significantly. (If I remember correctly, I believe he wasn't as impressed with the unit in its price range without this upgrade, but felt it became competitive at twice the price once the PS was installed. You might want to look up the original reviews.)

Thanks Mark; I obviously was not quite awake early this morning when I read your comments. I will definately check out the Musical Surroundings Phonomena and the Denon 103R cartridge. Was hoping to be able to stick with high output moving coils but can go either way since the Jolida has outputs for both high and low output cartridges.

Forgot to ask Mark if you are running the battery powered version of the Musical Surroundings Phonomena.

Hi Bob,
re the Musical Fidelity - I ran one of these for years, added the X-PSU and was stunned by the difference.
Asked long and hard on here re thoughts on Phonomena vs. Camelot - varied opinions as one would expect.
Just occured that buying a stage that has the option of a power supply upgrade at a future date has to be a sensible idea as every time I have went this route, the improvements far out stripped my expectations.
I think any review you read be it Musical Fidelity, Musical Surroundings, Channel Islands, Creek and all, will say the same thing.
Happy Trails
Simon