Which entry level phono stage, Graham Slee or Pro-

I have hte Graham Slee Era Gold IV and am very pleased with it. I bought it as a demo model. If you decide on a phono stage you will do yourself justice by upgrading your cartridge too. The stage will only sound as good as your cartridge.

There are a lot of good phono stages emerging in the $600-and-under category. For a long time Slee held the position for the $1K stage, but not necessarily the $500 one. Now there are many more and the Tube box is certainly one of them, but there are also the Creeks at $250 and $450 depending on whether you need MC or not, the new Grado PH-1, Musical Fidelity X-LPS V8, Clearaudio Smartphono, and especially, the Musical Surroundings Phonomena II, which has dual banks of DIP switches to optimize gain and resistance to a specific cartridge.

In its most recent analog issue, TAS seemed to really like the $600 Phonomena II, perhaps a bit better than the $925-1195 Slee Era Gold models.

Thanks everyone, I guess I should've specified my budget as closer to $200 used, which is what the Slee 2 SE and the tube box seem to be going for, roughly. Has anyone used both of these boxes and can comment on them? Thanks.

In that case, I'd look at the new Musical Fidelity V-LPS. There's a real good chance that this will equal or exceed the performance of a $200 used piece that was $500 five years ago. So far the units from MF's new V series are getting some enthusiastic reviews.

not to confuse the issue for you, but consider the Sim Audio LP3, which does both MM & MC, and for the money is considered a very good entry level phono stage. I've only used it with MM carts, but have been impressed. It is dead quiet, neutral, and fast. I've seen it offered in the $350-450 range used.