LCR phono stages we know about

" is that it places only an inductor in series with the system, which has very low DC resistance compared to the resistor MANDATED in RC type RIAA "

My point in posting was to highlight the fact that not all RC RIAA implementations require that high value series resistor and that yes, removing it does yield improved dynamics, palpability, touch etc. I have heard the difference in two different phono pre's: a single ended parallel feed design and a differential series feed design. In each case switching from series to shunt resistance resulted in big improvements in the above mentioned areas.

So you are right. Providing a low resistance path through the phono stage is beneficial in my experience. I just wanted to point out that LCR is not the only game in town when it comes to doing that. You seem to have implied that with the above quote.

Here's some more to contribute to the topic:

http://vinylsavor.blogspot.de/search/label/LCR%20RIAA

http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=DIYHiFi&m=5450

I am thrilled to own an Experience Music LCR Kahn phono stage

I the van den Hul Grail SB a LCR phono pre amp. This pre amp is one of the best I have ever heard. Maybe even better then my previous "reference" the Pass XP-15 and XP-25.
But I have not heard them side by side.

Has anyone here heard the van den Hul Grail and Grail SB?

See for info:
http://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/van-den-hul-grail-sb-crimson-phono-stage-moving-coil-cartridge

Jazdom, Hi. Can you say more about the Kahn phono stage. I presume the name refers to our mutual friend in Silver Spring. But maybe not.
John, I own a Silvaweld phono stage, designed and produced by the same Mr. Park who later went on to produce the Allnic products. He evidently had a huge change of heart after Silvaweld went under. Silvaweld phono stages are all RC types, use a capacitor as the first element in the filter, thus avoiding high value resistors at that point in the signal path (or any resistor, for that matter). However, using a capacitor has it's own theoretical issues, since capacitors are also imperfect devices; one might say they are more imperfect than resistors in fact. So the Silvaweld circuit is a far cry from the LCR used in the Allnic H3000 (or H1500). The Silvaweld also uses a JFET input to add gain for MC cartridges, followed by an all-tube RIAA correction network that by itself develops sufficient gain for any MM. In contrast, Allnic phonos use built-in SUTs for this purpose. I use my SWH550 only for MM cartridges, so I bypassed the JFET permanently, and then I rather drastically modified the tube circuit downstream, with some help and advice from a more knowledgeable DIYer. (Kept the capacitor-led RIAA as is.) The result is shockingly good. I have a neighbor up the street who just got hold of a LCR MM made by Dave Slagle and his business partner. I do not know the commercial name. I heard that the other day and am VERY impressed. I am familiar with my neighbor's system and had heard it previously with two other very good phono stages, Coincident and Dolshi. By comparison, the Slagle unit sounded very open, airy, effortless. He's made some other changes in his system along the way, so one cannot attribute all of the improvement to the new phono stage, and I would not say that the new phono "kills" the previous two, but.... it's very beguiling.

So, here's a list of some of the LCR phonos mentioned above:
Allnic H3000, H5000 (not a real-world possibility for me), H1500
Lounge
"Kahn" Experience Music
Ypsilon
Zanden (did not previously know that was an LCR type)

I know there are others in between the extremes of cost ($32K for the H5000 vs $250 for the Lounge [maybe the Ypsilon is even more costly than the H5000]), but my mind has gone blank. The Dave Slagle design costs ca $5000, plus the cost of any added SUT for MC. There's another one available via eBay from the orient that has received favorable mention. I am really curious about the H3000 and am on the look-out for a used one.

For the really far out theoreticians, I have read about LR-based RIAA filters, which use no capacitors at all. Apparently that's very tricky to execute because the values of the inductors must be very precise in order to achieve good RIAA compliance.