Best tube-based phono stage?

A budget would help. At under $1000 and MM only, I liked the Quicksilver.

At near $4k, it seems that the Zesto Audio Andros PS1 has been very well reviewed.

Need more info. Is there a budget? Does he have a moving magnet or moving coil cartridge (or both)? What other equipment will he be using it with? What kind of sound is he looking for?

The more you can provide the more specific other folks here can be on their recommendations.

I would say that the Aesthetix Io Eclipse has to be among the very best, if it is not the best.

I'll try to pry some more info out of him, thanks.

It sounds like your pal is not into very expensive gear and I think the OM5 cart is MM. I would not go with tube and I love tubes for everything else. The permissible noise level for a phono stage is miniscule the best sounding tubes in terms of tone tend to be old stock which are getting very scarce as truly unused. Used tubes get noisier with some age or so it seems. My whole hearted suggestion from this all tube guy otherwise for about $450 is the Graham Slee Gram Amp 2SE. It is appropriate for MM or high output MC. the sound is far better than its relatively low cost would suggest.