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Good reciever to buy with phono stage

Hello. I'm looking for the best reciever to buy with a phono stage for around $600. I have a technics 1200mkII with a denon 160 cartridge. The reciever would be used for my turntable as well as my 5.1 system. My front speakers are active and my rears are passive (and tiny). So I would need something that is able to give me preamp outs for the front and regular speaker level for the rears. Hopefully it would also have atleast one optical input.

Am I asking to much for this price point? My main concern is the phono stage sounding good, I was gonna buy a pro-ject tube box II. But an all in one would make more sense to me budget wise...
glassjaw
tgrisham
1,291 posts
 
I am a big fan of Onkyo receivers. I have an 805 and it is fabulous for decoding many different formats, is reliable, and very user-friendly. The 606 is about $450 online, or you can put a little more into it and move up the food chain. I have used the phono stage just to try it, but use a dedicated phono stage now. Even the tuner is great. Good luck.
riley804
1,224 posts
 
Read the second reply in this thread :

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1240268384
slikric3000
638 posts
 
Pioneer SX 949
dertonarm
1,042 posts
 
Have a look for the older Rotel Recievers from the late 1990ies............ some do even feature several good surround options AND Phono. Best sound for the money.
miner42
709 posts
 
A standard onboard phono pre is OK for the entry level tables. If you plan on stepping up the audiophile ladder later on with a +$2000 TT then it may be prudent to forgo your onboard and get a seperated phono pre. I was using the phono pre on my Rotel RC-1082 preamp ($1200 preamp with a decent phono pre - or so I thought) and decided to try a Graham Slee Ara Gold. It made such a dramatic difference I was thrilled beyond words. Keep in mind that my analogue front end was not entry level by any means - a Rega P7/DV20XH cartridge.
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