SS phono stage in $2k to $3k range...

You folks have given me some interesting alternatives to check out.

I have bought stuff fom Jay before and he has recommended the JLTi or Whest to me. I do trust his opinions and he's a really nice guy, too! I came up with the Pass Xono idea on my own. It's interesting that the JLTi and Xono apparently sound similar. They sure are physically different! LOL... The Pass is two large boxes and the JLTi (w/power supply) is two tiny ones. I am fortunate that I do have much vacant rack space, so size doesn't really matter to me. The JLTi is kind of 'cute', though! How's the build quality on the JLTi? Are the RCA jacks of high quality? I'm not concerned about the Pass Labs build quality. The Whest is totally an unknown to me, and there isn' much info about the PS.30R on the web, likely because it's newly released, I think.

I have the Sutherland PhD and am very happy with it. The instruments float in the air and the sound is a bit creamy.

I actually compared the JLTi to the Era Gold at Jay's(Audio Revelation) house on his truly great system(s). In his system, the only difference we both could discern(although, he may have been polite and not mentioned more) between the two was a very, very, slight hard edge to transients with trumpets and sax on the Era's side. But, my unit had not been powered up in quite a while and had no warmup at Jay's. Graham Slee recommends a minimum 72 hours, and suggests his units be left on 24/7. When I got home a gave the Era/EXP the recommend warmup, I could no longer discern the "blattiness".

Cannot praise Jay highly enough, he is one of the "good guys" in this industry and his musical and equipment taste/opinion is very, very, good.

Look for a used Walker Signature phono stage. It's discontinued, and rare, but it sold for $6650 new and can now be had in your price range. Sonically, I preffered it to my BAT VK-P10SE w/ Super-Pak phono stage.

I haven't heard the Whest or JLTi, but I have heard the Pass Xono. If you're looking for a warmer, sweeter sound the Pass may suit you best. If you're looking for better articulation and transparency, the Walker cannot be beat.

Cheers,
John

Try the Nagra BPS it sounds great. If I didn't own the Nagra VPS I would get it. Read the MF review in Stereophile. Very open, clean and neutral. A very good bang for the buck.