What's the best Phono preamp under $1000??

Dodd Audio also makes a phono pre in the $1000 range. I have the battery powered pre-amp (not the phono) and its excellent.

Dodd phono is $1200 so it's over your budget.

Nevertheless, I had it up against EAR834p and Eastern Electric Minimax in my system and those two couldn't hold a candle to the Dodd. The Eastern Electric sounded diffused and soft, the EAR834p collapsed the entire soundstage (in relative terms).

While I haven't did a direct comparison, I have been to people's home to listen some of their more costly TT rigs. One guy has a BAT VK-P10SE with Lyra Scala cartridge, another has a Messenger with Graham Nittingale cartridge, another has a ARC PH7SE with Koetsu Rosewood Platinum cartridge. If you ask me, I wouldn't replace my Dodd phono+Dyna20XH with any of those setups based on what I heard.

Honestly, I still don't believe Dodd phono can beat the heavy-weight bad boys like BAT, ARC or Messenger until I can hear these preamp in my system. But my experience told me that spending yourself to bankruptcy is no guarantee of good sound.

It is important to know what kind of sound you're after before you make the decision. If you have no idea what you want, my recommendation is to pick a SS design like a Graham Slee or Dynavector P75 and then just be happy with what you have. I am not against tube, but SS is more reliable in the long run, and less headache for newbies.

Have been seriously considering Dodd phono.....however , until I can justify the move in that direction - Consonance Ref. 40 is still my reference. Owning Dodd preamp and the concept of running on batteries is very appealing though. Those with Dodd phono - I assume it is very quiet......
Does any one have pictures with the cover off ???

Thanks

Mrjstark, shoot me an email and I'll send you some pictures. Dodd only have 50dB gain and a fixed 47kOhm load. But I have made some suggestions to Gary how to make the unit more flexible, I wanted him to add some kind of a binding posts so I can swap resistors on the fly, he seemed to be excited about it and would probably do so when he builds his next one.

For a picture of how the Dodd phono looks like from outside, see here:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3115/2686623321_b8323e5554.jpg

I'm with Dcroft, the Graham Slee Era Gold V. Detail, warmth, soundstage, depth, easy to listen to. I am using a MMF-7 with the standard tonearm and Eroica cartridge. It is all about the synergy of turntable-tonearm-cartridge-cable-phono stage. Wow! That's a lot of trial and error! But, it works for me. It's also about your ears and what kind of sound they like.