need advice for budget preamp for Rega p3-24...

I'm tempted by the delicious idea to buy ALL of the competing phono preamps from Audio Advisor (or wherever) and then doing blind a/b/c/d/e/f listening comparisons--and sending all but one back as insufficiently warm, liquid, quiet, dimensional, empathetic, forgiving, entrancing, and simpatico with my, umm, mild system.

But that would require several new credit cards. That we can't do this is one of the frustrations and defining features of this hobby, at least for someone in a Midwestern college town. Hopefully this roster of suggestions (above) will help future soul in my condition.

BTW: after bidding on a Graham Slee (and being declined), I just purchased a used Cambridge Audio 640p via audiogon for $125. Hopefully that will be a good start!

IMO if you're going to spend less than $200 the Cambridge 640P is IT. Cleanest, fastest, quietest, and articulate without being edgy. The NAD and Parasound may sound pleasant and musical, but the 640P gives you a taste of high end inner detail, resolution, and musicality.

If you go up to $400, I see a couple of other candidates--the Vincent PHO-8 at $359 and the partially tube-driven Jolida JD 9A. The Vincent is similar to the sub-$200 phono pre's in that it has fixed values for the MM and mc inputs, but is a notch above with a big, separate chassis power supply instead of a wall wart. The Jolida OTOH has a full-width chassis with big onboard power supply and a combo of tubes and op-amps to provide a prodigious amount of gain--up to 95dB.

I just graduated from the Cambridge 640P to the Jolida JD 9A a couple of weeks ago. I was fortunate enough to have a pair of NOS mil-std Sylvania 5751's to swap in for the supplied 12AX7s. It sounded good out of the box but has improved significantly in the 2 weeks I've had it.

The Jolida is very configurable like the better phono stages. It has three banks of DIP switches, a set of three for adjusting gain level, a set of four for impedance for MC cartridges, and a set of four for capacitance for MM/MI cartridges. Actually, double those figures because there's a set for each channel. On top of that there are low and higher level output jacks.

The Jolida lists at $450 but you can sometimes find it for less. I got an open box demo for $380.

There are also used deals as others have mentioned. I had a chance at a Musical Surroundings Phonomena II ($600 list) for $389, but I had to pass because its minimum capacitance setting is 200pF (plus the 100pF in my turntable cable) and my cartridge sounds its best at 150pF total. Other cartridges have different needs, and the Phonomena II is often considered the best sub-$1K phono pre out there.

Another thing about the Jolida, though, you can improve it quite a bit with little tweaks--tube dampers, better vibration damping feet or Vibrapods, damping sheets on the cover, and swapping the tubes for better current production or NOS ones.

Beyond that there are modification packages out there for upgrading the JD 9A as well.

After five months of use, the Cambridge Audio 640p I bought used on the 'gon DIED. It was used, so no warranty. Ugh.

Who repairs these things at good rate? I opened it up and nothing looked obviously bad, loose, or scorched. Power supply worked fine, too. Hmm.

So I just bought a Rega Fono online for under $200 used.

Would have liked to buy a lejonklou kinki 3, but at over $900 (with tax), i just can't see how it is 4x better than rega fono. I know it's better (I heard it) but my ears are a little bigger than my wallet right now.