A used EAR 834P might be a great solution - wonderful sound and should be close to your budget. A PH5 is a great unit but even used will be past your budget - but is defnitely better than a PH3SE -which is pretty good but maybe not as musical as the 834P. If the 834P has enough output for you it is worth seriously considering.
low output MC phono preamp for Audio Research pre
I have auditioned and am considering trying an Audio Research sp16 pre-amp in my system.
The one snag is that I use a low output moving coil cartridge, a Denon DL103R in my system and need an affordable phono pre-amp solution in that the phono pre-amp built into the sp16 does not provide sufficient gain.
One possibility that my dealer is investigating is if AR can do a step-up tweak to the sp16.
If that does not work out, an external phono preamp that matches well to the Denon DL103R is the other solution.
Any suggestions on which phono pre-amps offer good sound at reasonable price and can work with the DL103R and an Audio Research sp16?
Does Audio Research provide a phono pre-amp that works well with low output MC cartridges? I would probably be content sticking with a pure ARC solution if I can find one.
Thanks.
The one snag is that I use a low output moving coil cartridge, a Denon DL103R in my system and need an affordable phono pre-amp solution in that the phono pre-amp built into the sp16 does not provide sufficient gain.
One possibility that my dealer is investigating is if AR can do a step-up tweak to the sp16.
If that does not work out, an external phono preamp that matches well to the Denon DL103R is the other solution.
Any suggestions on which phono pre-amps offer good sound at reasonable price and can work with the DL103R and an Audio Research sp16?
Does Audio Research provide a phono pre-amp that works well with low output MC cartridges? I would probably be content sticking with a pure ARC solution if I can find one.
Thanks.