Equal $$ for Phono OR Streaming?

If you have a lot of vinyl already, spending on a good phono preamp is wise.

Otherwise, the future is digital, spend it on a good streamer.

R-pi plus Allo hat for £150. Khadas DAC for £90. Roon plus Qobuz for £25 a month. Less without Roon if you can bear it. 

My Bricasti M5 streamer with ENO filter on the Ethernet input, way outperforms my MoFi UltraDeck, which now never gets used.

As others have noted, that is a decent budget.  He should be able to get both decent analog and digital.  If after a few years he develops a clear preference for one over the other, he can upgrade, but even if he doesn’t he should have decent enough equipment for a lifetime of enjoyment 

Thanks for the input, all. I will pass it along.

Amazing diversity of opinion. I will share this whole thread with him so he can learn. Thank you!

Analog fans such as @millercarbon say analog "is off the charts" better and @robertbrook says that digital is for people listening at lower volumes or not really paying attention; if you the music gets the attention and volume level characteristic of (his phrase) a "true audiophile," analog is a necessity. Several here list ways to do analog well within the price parameters.

Others, including long time vinyl fans, see digital as better, just as good, or nearly as good, especially with the price constraints. E.g., @jrw1971 estimates at least $10-15k for analogy to beat great Dacs. (I also haven’t started the Wire. But I know, I know: probably the best show, really, ever!) Several see digital catching up in the next few years.

A bunch of great ideas in the "both category." @jjss49’s amazing setups pose a serious challenge, as they contain excellent gear within the limits described (closer to $6k). He doesn’t weigh in on which is sonically better, but he calls digital "excellent" so that seems to imply that it’s at least close enough.

As @feldmen4 (Matt) points out, the limits of the question are hard to abide, as many point out the additional costs to analog are magnitudes greater (for content acquisition, primarily) and I like guy-incognito’s description that a vinyl collection can become a "walled garden." In some ways, I attribute my own ability to listen to music in a focused and deep way to the limits placed on me by by record collection growing up -- hard to get new albums, as a kid (expense, someone had to drive me to a store, I didn’t even know what was available until I got to the store). As a result, I listened over and over to what I had and learned to listen in a way different than many do now, with the ability to skip from tune or artist to artist. That said, if I was growing up today, I don’t think I’d be able to stand being walled in that way. Once you’ve travelled...

P.S. A third option is CD’s, which as the Audiophilac points out, can sound quite amazing with a good DAC and transport and CD’s are often very very inexpensive. I suppose CD’s don’t compete, sonically, for most here advocating streaming, but my guess is that a great transport/DAC combo is very easily available for well under $6k.