Used Audible Illusions Modulus 3A...great tubed phono stage, optional John Curl moving coil board, all triode design and dedicated power supply. I replaced an Audio Note preamplifier with this and have never looked back. My other choice (would prefer actually) is the VTL Ultimate but they are hard to find and most of them will require much more money thrown at them after purchase due to age. Tubes and caps almost certainly would have to be replaced/upgraded as well as a general cleaning I suspect.
The Art Audio tube phono preamp is very nice and one was for sale at 995. Lovely looking unit; main issue is no balance control at all which I require as much of my library is live digital tapes that sometimes have Left/right channels with record level differences.
Don't forget Acoustic Research. Their vintage SP6 and SP8 are excellent phono preamplifiers. My comments about the VTL apply here as we are talking of around 20 year old components.
The Art Audio tube phono preamp is very nice and one was for sale at 995. Lovely looking unit; main issue is no balance control at all which I require as much of my library is live digital tapes that sometimes have Left/right channels with record level differences.
Don't forget Acoustic Research. Their vintage SP6 and SP8 are excellent phono preamplifiers. My comments about the VTL apply here as we are talking of around 20 year old components.