I have a Classe 47.5 with the optional mm/mc phono card installed. New around $2800, used around $1600. Very nice. I demoed or have owned Mcintosh, PSE, Thule, Sonic Frontier, Krell, Bryston, Sim Audio, Plinius and others and preferred the Classe. Classe has a tube like sound from a solid state device.
Reasonable preamps with phono stage
Hi, thanks for taking the time to look. I just ordered a musical fidelity A3.2 preamp. I haven't heard it yet, but it probably should sound as goo as a3 which it replaces and it cand be had for >1500$. Am I mistaken but are ther very few preamps for less than 2k new that have a phono stage? MF is a company with a track record that is likely to be in business until the warranty runs out, but few other companies with those characteristics seem to "throw in a phono stage on their preamps. Why is that? Does everyone just want separate phono stages?