Best Phone Stage for under $1,000.000

So there ya have it. 25 responses, and almost as many choices.

I haven’t heard a word about it, but worth looking into is Frank Van Alstine’s $599 stand-alone phono amp. Alstine’s an excellent designer, one who took a look at the ARC SP-3, found what he considered correctable flaws, and came up with cures for that pre’s RIAA inaccuracy, non-linearity, and power supply weakness.

Yep, Frank is da man. 

The OP asked a legit Q (without obvious typos), yet folks offer no substantive advice other than poke fun at his title. Some might consider posting something useful to the OP.

In fairness, the OP should specify what he means about “best” and the expected service needs for cartridges (MM, MC or MI?; output voltage needs?).

I make no claims as to it being the "best", but you can find used Musical Surroundings Nova Phonomena units for well below $1K.  It's a very neutral unit, very quiet, and has a ton of loading and gain settings.  I also like the Jolida JD9 in that price range. 

I've been considering one of the Parks Puffin units.  I've seen and heard it and the demo system it was in sounded fantastic.  I don't need another phono stage, but I love its compact size and versatility.  It might replace one of my JD9s or one of the Novas.