Phono preamp for Dynavector XX2mkII

In my system I had a little different results with the Ayre and Sim phonos. Using the Ayre K-1xe preamp and Ayre amp with Thiel speakers. I found the Ayre to be on the dry side and a little thin compared to the Sim. It also was not as quiet.

Tom, I think they are both excellent phono stages; in my case, I really wanted XLR-in which does reduce noise by a small but easily audible 4-5 dB margin. Although I have some hiss, I no longer have hum. Eliminating hum was a bear for me, and had to also replace the power cable and others around it with shielded type. The results have been extremely rewarding.

I never could get rid of the noise problem with the Arye, but at the time was only able to run it SE in and balanced out. The noise more than the sonics was the reason for selling it. I have now moved to the BAT VK-P10 and i am running it balanced both in and out.

I had a Sutherland Hubble w/AC on loan for a few days SE in/out an dead quiet. Cannot get rid of some hum with my Dynavector p-75, among the reasons I want to move on. The Sutherlan is more than I want to spend.

Thanks for all the great info guys.

I am using a BAT VK-P10 (balanced) with a Dyna DV-20XL on a VPI Aries 3, and love it. I got it used for under $2k.