Budget phono stage under $100, cheap but refined, does it exist?

LOL

It's cheaper than phono cable

You do not even want to know how little the TT cost... lol

If your need is not immediate, keep an eye open for a previously enjoyed Lounge Audio LCR MKII. (This is the one with the wood case.) From personal experience it is amazingly satisfying for the very modest investment.

You should be able to find a used NAD PP2 for that price. It's decent (not great, but you get what you pay for).

Schitt Mani - a little over at $129, but a very fine phono stage.

Check out this U-turn audio Pluto for $89.00.  It sure won't break the bank!
https://uturnaudio.com/products/pluto-phono-preamp

There's a Pro-Ject Phono Box listed here for $65 and free shipping. I've never heard one, but it's from a reliable manufacturer and it's cheap.

 

Some great ideas so far!

Project, NAD, U-Turn I have heard of but zero experience of.

Looks like there may be hope at this low cost after all.

+1 on the Schiit Mani. I have one, great phono stage at any price!

And your next all in one system is .... this one , lol 

Very droll  Chak…...

@uberwaltz it's from the same company who brought us Denon 103, the phono stage, headphone amp and speaker are inside, battery powered mobile system. 

Have a friend who purchased U Turn died after 6 months. LOL the phono stage.

Chak
Just because the subject is best opinions on a budget phono does not mean I am not deadly serious about it.
Thx

Not good to hear on the u turn!
But better that than your friend .. Lol

+2 on the Schiit Mani.

Schiit Mani +3

Phonopreamps.com has a mighty fine unit for 45 bucks or so. Seriously, had one for almost 10 years, sounded fantastic and never an issue. Not sure if the Mani is much better actually.

https://www.phonopreamps.com/tc750pp.html
You know the product is good since the website is so bad..There is an inverse relationship there normally, lol.

A whole $49.50 shipped
My kind of budget.
These are the real life recommendations of usage I was looking for
Thank you

Buy this and be done with it. Lots of reviews out there.

http://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649487624-project-phono-box-2/

U-Turn Pluto

I bought the budget project photo box for a friend. It was toast in under 24 hours and the folks at project had little time or sympathy to attend to customer service. I ended up buying the Beringer $25 model... shrill in the highs and now low end at all. I agree with the Lounge Audio recommendation. Look up any reviews of the LCR mk iii.... haven’t heard it but it gets raves.. though again I haven’t heard it the Schiity products at Schiit have a reputation for high build quality at affordable prices with excellent customer service.. and all American made.. 

best of luck

Hdm

I just did!

Thank you!

Thanks to all but should be good to go now.

Minus one on the Mani. Mine was defective from day one.
Oh but their CS does live up to the company name.
Refunds minus shipping both ways and restock fee.
You might get lucky though... I am only one out of four
on this thread. Feeling lucky??

Just so happens I am selling a U-Turn Audio Pluto Phono Preamp here: https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis9a29j-u-turn-pluto-phono-preamp-phono

Minus one on the Mani. Mine was defective from day one.
Oh but their CS does live up to the company name.
Refunds minus shipping both ways and restock fee.

A restocking fee for a defective item? I'd hope that was only the result of a miscommunication. Otherwise, that's incredibly schiity.  

Ummm, one of you is lying. How can the actual experience of one person be wrong? 

Musical fidelity V90. Reasonably priced (150?) and quite decent quality. Beeen using one for a period of time, waiting to upgrade my amp, with a Thorens 126 MK III and can't blame the results.

Here ya go big spender!
https://www.parts-express.com/Search.aspx?keyword=phono%20preamp&sitesearch=true

Thank you all for your input. I see the OP has a solution. I and probably others appreciate his question and the responses it attracted. Great community of folks here!

Been following this thread because I recently upgraded HT system with a new AVR, and repurposed old AVR in combination with some spare B&W FPM5's and BR-player to create a separate 2-channel music area in our master bedroom. Problem is this AVR has no phono input, so looking for a phono amp. I have an older one from Parts Express - think it's one of the Pyle models, and although they claim 'no-noise', it is not. The TT I have is a very old Technics SL-B20 (p-mount, belt drive, not sure what cartridge), in good shape.

So thinking about the noisy phono amp, old turn table, old (possibly worn-out) cartridge, and the cost of good phono amp ($200'ish) and thinking it might be better to get a new turn table. I remember back in the day, 'direct drive' was the upgrade model in Technics' line.

So after a little time on Amazon and Parts Express, find a couple of interesting options at $300 in the Fluance RT-81 and Audio-Technica AT-LP12-USB. Both have built-in phono amp and come with AT95E stylus, the Fluance adds beautiful wood finish, while the A-T has USB and direct drive (in ugly old silver finish - but would match the B&Ws). Neither have P-mount (wish they did). So I'm thinking either of these might be good options for the extra $100 over the cost of phono amp alone. Also like the idea of simplifying (no separate phono amp) for the already over-populated collection of extra devices - bluetooth receiver (because AVR doesn't have BT built-in) and wireless bridge (because AVR only has wired Ethernet).

Rarely listen to records, but if it sounded better, might be nice to reminisce with the 150 LP collection of our youth. You remember the 'good old days' with, Columbia House and BMG? That's where most of these records came from.

Any recommendations on how best to get from where I am to a better TT system without going overboard? 

Mwatsme

I can really recommend a Teac TN-300 as a good budget TT cw built in phono as I bought one a few years back and still have it in my daughters system and she plays a lot of music on it!
It comes cw a cartridge AT95E and built in phono and usb if you ever wanted to digitize your record collection.

I upgraded with an Ortofon 2m red as it was laying around but with the AT is was no slouch.

You can pick them up on eBay for about $240 or so.

Just my thoughts.

The chassis costs more than $100 to make!

I would recommend the Schiit Mani as well. I had the Emotiva XPS-1 before getting the Mani and the Mani definitely has a wider soundstage, more separation and better dynamics overall. The Mani is a great preamp for the money.

some people have reported having issues with the Mani picking up RF, which is an issue I haven't run into. 

Upgrading the NAD PP2 with a good, regulated power supply and discrete op-amp will put you in a good place. The PP2 (cost about $100 used on fleabay) can be run stock until you raise the funds for the upgrades. You can probably do similar upgrades to Pro-Ject and Cambridge units, but ymmv. 

 a Musical Fidelity VLPS II with s seperate power supply is great bang for the buck