Thanks for the help. The Einstein is supposed to be a great unit. I am running single ended also, and the SE version is about 5K, so it would be within my budget. I am sure the TT choice would be worth hearing paired with a good line stage.
The Shindo of course would keep me all in one box, and with one less interconnect in my setup. This is desirable, especially the interconnect part. I think this will lead me to checking out the Shindo first, since it would be great to do this with a full function. I have not done any homework on the external SUP transformers. I would think the built in MC SUP in a Masseto would be very good though. It may be time to talk with a Shindo dealer to shed some light on this subject. The Shindo MC gain seems sufficient, so it may come down to the how the built in MC transformer stacks up against reasonably priced external ones. Then of course I am back to needing an extra set of cables for transformer>preamp. Ahh, never easy but always fun.
The Shindo of course would keep me all in one box, and with one less interconnect in my setup. This is desirable, especially the interconnect part. I think this will lead me to checking out the Shindo first, since it would be great to do this with a full function. I have not done any homework on the external SUP transformers. I would think the built in MC SUP in a Masseto would be very good though. It may be time to talk with a Shindo dealer to shed some light on this subject. The Shindo MC gain seems sufficient, so it may come down to the how the built in MC transformer stacks up against reasonably priced external ones. Then of course I am back to needing an extra set of cables for transformer>preamp. Ahh, never easy but always fun.