best phono preamps?

The strength of having the phono section integrated with the line section is two-fold: first, you don't have connectivity issues connecting the phono to the line section (or amplifier), which often results with the interconnect acting as a sort of tone control. Second, the phono section need not have as much gain (less noise and distortion, greater bandwidth all as a result) since the line stage will have some gain as well.

The best phono preamps are integrated phono/line level preamps.

In general, that may be true. My Doshi Audio Alaap separates sound every bit as good as the Alaap full function preamp. Just like turntables and everything else, it really depends on each individual implementation.

Dear Dan: I agree totally with Ralph about.

Please think on this for a moment, everything the same what do you prefer NO better yet what tell you your wide common sense?: that a stand alone line preamp and stand alone phoo stage connected each other through a cable could/can even the quality performance of an integrated unit ( Phonolinepreamp ) that does not needs that additional cable/veils/distortions?

and this is " everything the same " imagine when the line preamp and the phono stage comes from different manufacturar where the impedances between the units are unmatched, where you have two different " signature " sound, where you have two different quality unit performances, where..., where,....etc, etc.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul,

when I met you at Doug and Paul's to hear your Essential, I was stopped, for whatever reason, from bringing in my Alaap separates which I had with me at the time. We stayed with Doug's preamp. At that time, I believe that my separates were still ahead of Nick's full function preamp. So, it would have been most interesting to hear side-by-side with the Essential. Nick has since found a way to tweak his FF preamp psu to meet the performance of the separates, so today there is not much difference in the sound of the Alaaps. Unless Nick has come up with another tweak he hasn't told me about. ;-)

I do understand, from both a practical and engineering standpoint, why one may think that separates cannot approach the level of a single preamp. But it can and has been done. I agree that if one is mixing and matching phonostages and preamps that it would be most difficult to achieve this.

Still, it always comes down to implementation.

Why using a linepreamp when we can use a phonopreamp direct connected to the amp ? A good gain attenuator is better than another device/cable unit.