Budget Phono Preamp?

Musical Fidelity X-LP (discontinued) or X-LPS (soon to be discontinued). Both have (had) $300 retail price but can be found new for $200 on Ebay.

I know other very good phone stages in the price range (Clearaudio, Lehmann Black Cube), but they are made in Germany and probably not easily available in the US.

I think www.amusicdirect.com sells the clearaudio and there are often black cubes for sale here, but not usually that cheap. Grado makes one in that price range too, but I have no idea how it sounds.

A Sumiko "Project." Sounds very good especially consideing the $!

The best sounding Phono preamp that I have had in my system is the Clearaudio Micro Basic... This is a killer piece for the money and comes with an outboard power supply. It is mm or mc and sounds fantastic!
Check out www.needledoctor.com
Happy listening,
Joe
Custom Audio LLC

Channel Islands VPP1 - awesome and under $300 new. There are a couple dealers here (underwoodwally - super guy), and can even buy here from the manufacturer itself (ciaudio). Webpage is www.ciaudio.com

You can get an upgrade power supply for it also. This is a truly great 'stage for the money and I recommend it without hesitation.

Another contender might be the Monolithic ps-1. Very flexible and musical. At a'gon, they usually appear in the classifieds with the optional outboard power supply, but then you're looking at around 400, so keep an eye peeled for just the ps-1.