best phono preamp under 500?


Graham slee products
Bellari VP129
music fidelity

others
dvdgreco
get to high 6's and get the PS Audio GCPH.
Then you have an upgrade path with Underwood to
truly compete with 10K phono preamps and out of the box
it stands up to anything under 2500 that I've heard.
There's no such thing as "best" but I would definitely check out the new Musical Fidelity V-LPS II that is just going out to dealers in the US. It retails for under $200.