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

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.

I've had good success with the Mod Squad Phono Drive, which you can pick up used for about $400. Amazingly open, detailed and smooth and very flexible (adjustable loading and an active gain stage which can be used or not (via jumpers). I've heard the External Power Supply version is even better, if you can find one.