Cary SLP-98 vs. other high end preamps--C-J, etc.

I own a Cary SLP 98 with phono and have never been dissatisfied. It is one component that has not been back in the box to re-sell in my upgrade frenzy. A couple units you should look into before making a choice: First Sound tube pre-amps made in Renton, Washington and Klyne solid state pre-amps made in Chehalis, Washington. Neither are cheap, but the word on the street is that they rank with the best made, period. Both companies have websites. In many ways the pre-amp is the most important component in the deck, EVERYTHING runs through them, they are your one common component among all components. Klyne makes both line stage and phono stage, First Sound makes only line stage. The Cary is an exceptional value, very reliable, sexy and delicious sounding up and down the frequency range. Huge outboard power supply. A good set of tubes from Vintage Tubes in Michigan and the unit sings, very nice.

Steveaudio: I understand your question about the SLP 98 phono stage - just how good is it? I own one, but unfortunately don't have anything to compare it to. I have been questioning how good it is to people whose opinion I value, but not enough people seem to be analog savvy. Everything is CD/digital now. Essentially I have concluded (subjectively) that the inboard phono stage of the SLP 98 is pretty good. I had an A-gon buyer over last weekend who was looking to buy some gear I have listed for sale and he heard my analog set up. I have recently undergone a big 'upgrade' (read: expensive new stuff!!) and am cleaning up all my old albums and really enjoying/re-discovering them. I bought a Benz H-2 wood body cartridge, a new Nottingham Analogue Spacedeck turntabale and I bought all new tubes for my SLP 98 pre-amp. The fellow seemed genuinely impressed with the sound. As part of the analog signal path, I feel that the Cary phono stage must be doing its job pretty well or he would not have been as impressed with the phono results. I have been doing a little reading and if money were no object, I would probably go with a Klyne phono stage. Or possibly the Cary outboard unit, but they are expensive and am at least for now satisfied. I think Dennis Had of Cary being a bit of a throw-back (SET amps, tube amps, etc.) would not put anything substandard in any of his pre-amps. Other options might be the Pass Labs phono stage or EAR. But the Cary, I think holds its own. I will tell you this, though, the Nottingham/Benz combo is excellent. I am back to vinyl and the CD's are used pretty much for their convenience and availability of new music, not for the CD sound vs. vinyl. I also believe there really are a lot of great choices out there. As my tt salesman said to me: when you get to $6k for a turntable, all the makers produce a pretty good product: VPI, SME, Kuzma, Nottingham Analogue etc. I think the new/old stock tubes have as much to do with it as anything. MM