You mean something musical but reasonably inexpensive until the Aurieges comes in?
There are several good-performing low cost phono stages these days and I'm sure other A-goners with more varied experience will chime in. The Bellari VP129 tube-driven phono stage has good buzz and it's main limitation is that it has only 29 dB of gain. If you go with a 2M Black, however, this wouldn't be a problem because the Black has rather high output even for an MM.
Another alternative is the Cambridge Audio 640P, which can accommodate a wide range of cartridges as it's switchable between MC and MM for 58db and 39 dB of gain respectively. It takes a bit of break-in to smooth out, but once it does, it has excellent clarity and detail at the price ($169) but with good speed and great musical coherency.
There are several good-performing low cost phono stages these days and I'm sure other A-goners with more varied experience will chime in. The Bellari VP129 tube-driven phono stage has good buzz and it's main limitation is that it has only 29 dB of gain. If you go with a 2M Black, however, this wouldn't be a problem because the Black has rather high output even for an MM.
Another alternative is the Cambridge Audio 640P, which can accommodate a wide range of cartridges as it's switchable between MC and MM for 58db and 39 dB of gain respectively. It takes a bit of break-in to smooth out, but once it does, it has excellent clarity and detail at the price ($169) but with good speed and great musical coherency.