Is Audio Research PH3 phono the best for today's price?

With good tubes, probably 4 to 5 yeras.

Bingo! What is the best way to get high quality tubes? Their retail price is usually $100 each. I can see that some of them go off ebay for $25-30 a piece. Are these tubes fake? In fact I do not know how to distinguish real ones.

You can get great tubes for $50 - $60 each from eiher Upscale Audio or Vintage Tube. I use Mullards. I would only buy tubes from a respected dealer or with some sort of documentation.

Blues man, what tubes have you tried on the PH3/PH3SE? I've just had my analog front end set up for a few weeks. I've replaced the Sovteks with Amperex white label 7308s. And the whole thing sounded great! (Now I regret buying all thosed CDs.)

I've got a big stash of tubes, so I can experiment for a bit.

By the way, I've compared Black Cube with power supply upgrades($900) in the demo room with AR PH3 on couple of jazz and rock vinyls -- AR outperforms in both cases. Phonomena lays back even with battery power supply to both Black Cube and AR as well. The only one I know is Pass Ono which is rare and costly.