Help with Pre-Amps

There's an Audible Illusions for sale today-great deal. Otherwise, the Forte, AR or Rogue are all $700 or less and will sound awesome.

Phaseshifter, I had a Benz Ace cartridge on my VPI Scout and liked the combo. I don't have experience with your turntable so its hard to tell if the Benz would work well.

If you bought your tt from a dealer they should know what works well. If not you could ask SOTA what they recommend.

As for the table I made a base for it that I filled with sand. The base was about 10 inches tall, and 20x20 inches wide. Then I put a piece of plywood on top that did'nt touch the sides and put the table for turntable on that.

The biggest improvement I made was when I attached a piece on wood on the outside of the base to support the turntable motor independently of the the table. That got rid of all of the motor noise going thru the turntable. Unfortunately you need a turntable that has its motor seperated from the plinth to do this.

The table I used to set the turntable on was nothing special but the base and the motor stand really helped get the most out of the turntable.

Best
Sean

I would also consider the Audible Illusions Modulus 3 preamp.

Tube rolling is just changing tubes to find the ones you enjoy the most. As a guitar player, you have been doing this in all likelihood with your guitar amps.

Another good grouping of used preamps are many of the Audio Research ones. The list can go on and on, even at this price point.

I would listen to as many systems as possible before going any further with ANY decision. Since you have started with a good front end, I would now find what speakers you like. I would not listen to what the rags or anyone has to say.Listen,but be your own man and decide for yourself.If there is a audiophile group/club in your area;get involved. Unless you live near Chicago,New York or San Fran.,there are few boutiques that have good selections for you to listen to, so get in a club and go listen to others systems.Whatever speakers you go with will determine what amps to go with.I do not agree (respectfully)with the statement of buying a linestage because you have a phono pre already.I would buy a full featured preamp, so you can have the flexibility of using a step-up transformer (SUT)with a tube mm phono input.You can always plug your phono pre into one of the line stages at first and experiment later. The "gain chips" you speak of are probably load settings, not gain settings.This is for optimizing a low output moving coil(lomc) cartridge load.

The speaker choice is critical.If you get something very efficient it will allow you to go for amps that a less efficient speaker won't work with.
The audio "chain" symmetry is REALLY important.Not all amps work with all speakers, not all amps work well with all preamps.So you see, the speakers will determine the rest of the chain.
Some would argue,that the speakers and the cartridge will be the biggest influence in the sound and character of your system. This is why I stress to get out there and listen. Reading about sonics is almost useless.Until you experience a lot of different systems, you won't understand what the rags and other audiophiles are talking about.
I am sure a lot of what you read is confusing. It is.
Do your homework, but listen, listen,listen.
Lastly I would say that expensive doesn't mean good,especially with things like cables.This hobby has a lot of smoke and mirrors,flim flam and will prey on someone with no experience and a fat wallet. If a ad or review sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Emorrisiv, Phaseshifter had started this thread in 2008. I really doubt he's been waiting this long for your suggestion :)) Of course, I might be wrong...