Best Phono You've Heard Under $2200

For under $2200, the Sutherland Insight with LPS is excellent and you'll have a few bucks left over for records. Extremely quiet and adjustable in case you decide to go for a MC cartridge. No extra circuitry, no on/off switch. Ron is a very nice, patient guy and not salesy at all. I asked him once about upgrading and he told me to just enjoy the Insight. He was very big on the LPS though that was recently offered as an option. It exists in a much more expensive model (I think the DUO).

All he does is phono stages. That counts for something.

Before making your final decision you may want to figure out your long term cartridge plan. More than any other link in the stereo signal chain, the cart-phono stage synergy is most important (not that others aren't critical). For example, if you end up with a very low output MC, the new Sutherland model at $1400 may be your best bet, the TZ Vibe. One nice thing about that option is that you don't have to worry about the load setting. It uses some of the tech of his higher end models.

Not to turn this into a cartridge discussion, but part of the reason I have a van den Hul MC One Special cartridge is the fact that he also makes excellent phono stages (and the cartridge is very natural, clean and transparent sounding with a very long lasting stylus). Synergy is great. My holy grail end game phono stage is the  van den Hul Grail (I kid you not). Can't justify the expense at this point, but you never know if I hit the lottery or find a great deal on a a used one. A new one would cost more than my table, suspension,shelf, cart, phono stage and its suspension and interconnect and power conditioner combination from a list price stand point, so it would have to be a killer deal on a used one, which I have never seen.

Other  than Rega and Linn, I am not aware of anyone else who makes both products, and I already have Rega's P8. I'm not that much of a Rega fan to go the full Rega analogue route and think Linn has lost their way, at least in the US.

I am a big believer of KISS with less adjustments, connections, cables, etc. which is also why the Graill appeals to me.

With his highly recommended LPS, the Sutherland 20/20 is $2650 - the insight with LPS is $1750 and an excellent phono stage and will meet the $2200 criteria. You may be able to get an Insight used for $8-900 and then add the LPS for $350, which represents tremendous value. It might be hard to find a used 20/20, but if you can, it should be under $2200 by a good bit,and adding the LPS is easier as it is in a separate box, whereas in the Insight, there is an internal board swap (I did myself with assistance from Ron over the phone). He is a great guy..

@gochurchgo - the LPS cleans up the sound by lowering the noise from the power supply. Not that the standard one is bad, just that the LPS is excellent.

Ron Sutherland told me that if I was his brother in law, he would tell me to get the LPS for the Insight. I am sure the same applies to the 20/20 although it is $450, probably because it comes in a separate box versus just a board. I’m not sure what kind of cord goes from the LPS to the main box, but I’m sure it doesn’t detract much if anything from the sound, versus it being internal like the Insight.

My change was getting an external PS instead of the internal one in my Plinius Integrated Amp, which has an internally adjustable MM/MC switch. The dealer who sold me the Plinius (used) initially told me I would be very happy with the Insight or the 20/20, and I didn’t want to spend more on the PS than I did on the amp. I was lucky to find a pristine used Insight, but if I saw a used 20/20 back then, I might have gone for it. I guess initially he didn’t want to talk about a PS since I bought th Plinius when all I wanted was a new preamp he thought I would say forget it (which I probably would have). The Plinius PS worked fine, but the Insight sounds way better.

All I can say is that from the second I plugged in the Insight, the difference was immediate. Then I fine tuned the load to match my cartridge and it got a little better. Sorry I don’t have all the audiophile buzzwords for the substantial improvement, I can just say it sounded much better. With every improvement I make, it is hard to say what did what, I just know when I remember a big difference, and when it is subtle if anything.

I can’t say the sound quality improvement with the LPS was noticeable to me, but maybe that depends on your power source, and I use a good power conditioner. I trust Ron, and I am not as sensitive as some of the .very serious Audiogoners. If you decide to ever sell the 20/20, I am sure you would get most if not all of your $$ back for the LPS.

@audiosaurusrex Ask your dealer about Sutherland - see what he thinks.