What is the Phono stage you have finished with?

Being in Europe easy to get Goldmund Mimesis PH 3 or FM acoustics. Have heard both and the FM Acoustics is by far the best phono preamp I have heard. The Goldmund is right behind it and not that far of the pace of the FM Acoustics. Price wise not for the faint of heart.

Re Downunder: "I would have luved the IO, however too noisy."
Yes, my Io, bought used, was noisy, and remained noisy with various NOS tube experiments. It got so bad that I asked for a full tube replacement from Aesthetix. That fixed my noise problems, now it sounds great.

i am by no means an expert, but the zyx artisan is a quality ss phono preamp. I have borrowed a couple of tube phono's before i got the zyx. I have not a/b's using my friends tube preamp so i can not say if i am better or worse, but the quality is much better than my vandersteen ol and rotel. I have learned there is no finished but rather content for a while. I am there right now on my analog setup

My own super biased opinion - the PBN Audio Olympia PX -
Balanced operation - fully discrete - fully regulated power supply larger than most power amps - does not get much better :-) go to the website and take a look.

ATB

Peter

Atma-sphere MP1 has a first-rate phono stage and a fabulous linestage all rolled into one, with true balanced differential circuits from input to output and no output coupling capacitor, since the amp is directly driven via the circlotron output stage of the MP1. This is a true bargain in all of audio, when you consider the gear it can be compared to, e.g., the Aesthetix Io, Manley Steelhead, Lamm, ASR, etc, etc. I haven't heard it, but Raul's Essential 3160 would seem to be a similar bargain. Plus, you don't have to buy interconnects between phono stage and linestage. My only beef with the MP1 - I sure wish it had two pairs of phono inputs, instead of one.