Phono pre for Technics SL-1000R (Esoteric E-02?)

Had an MP-3, now an MP-1 the phono stage is superb, I would say the MP-3 for the money IMO is one of the best preamps outthere, the MP-1 is more refined and obviously costly, I don’t know what Ralph did but sometimes I miss my MP-3 over my MP-1, as good as my MP-1 is, my former MP-3 had "something" which made it special (but I went through system changes so I don’t really can’t compare with same conditions)
A local dealer have DSA’s and I heard it is excellent but yes pricey.With the MP-1 Ralph will give you the ability to control gain etc. old fashion way with attenuation and resistors for cart loading, the gain on his preamps and the "delicacy" of sound is amazing.Beware, if you have RFI issues the Atma phono stage is so sensitive that if the TT cable is not of good quality will pickup RFI and you could hear a radio station coming out of your speakers, that’s what you get with a top class phono stage

@lewm

Since I have owned and used an atma-sphere MP1 for more than 20 years 

Hey Lew, by any chance do you also have MA-1's?OMG just went to your system MA-240? 6C33C's? what did you do Lew to get such beauty from RalphAnd ESLs? what?
Superb system Lew, hats to you

I bought the MA240s in "kit" form from Ralph back in the late 90s.  My pair were among the last ones he made, and I wanted to assemble the circuit such that each 6C33C could be separately biased, which required 3 separate driver tubes, one for each pair of output tubes.  At that time, I knew very little about circuit design or tubes or how to read a schematic, even. But I found a local guy who put the amplifiers together for me.  (MA240 essentially equals an MA2 with 6C33Cs instead of a gaggle of 6AS7s.)  Then I started studying tube electronics from books and with input from anyone who would talk to me, including a lot from Ralph.  Over the years I have made many further mods, including I have now reduced the output tube count by using four 7241 triodes per channel, instead of six 6C33Cs.  Gives about the same power but requires fewer tubes all around.  My Sound Lab 845PXs are modified as well.  Sorry for off topic.
I don't think your problems with RFI are likely to be due to something in the MP1 circuit.  Ralph makes a point about the fact that his units are relatively cable insensitive.  I've certainly never had a problem with hum or RFI, and I don't use megabuck cables; I make my cables in fact.

Your journey with the MA240's is amazing, I have the "gaggle" of 6AS7G's but I'm happy with them, the MA-1's are good in their own way.
My existing current Technics has single ended connections into adapter cables going balanced into the MP-1 that's why the RFI issue, if the connection would be balanced yes definitely the problem will be gone and YES his units are cable insensitive, I went replacing cables and trying different ones and if you keep "true" balanced end to end the cable makes no difference, a home made Mogami with Neutrik connectors is good enough.

Since the output from the cartridge can be treated as balanced, why not just put XLR connectors on the ends of your phono cables?  (You do need to use cables that provide two wires for the audio signal and a third wire for ground or if no third wire, which is not necessarily needed, you just connect the shield to pin1 of the XLR.  Pin1 is ground.) Does your tonearm terminate in a DIN connector from which you run a cable with female DIN at one end and RCAs at the other?  That's easy to change.  If you contact me privately, I would be happy to help.  I am stealing the thread by going off topic.