Phono Stage upgrade to complement Dohmann Helix One Mk 2

@drbond I have some experience with some of the phonostages you are considering (not all though). I used to own a EMIA CR phonostage and still have the EMIA SUT in my system. I have extensively heard the FM 122Mk2 in couple of my friend's systems. I have also heard the Boulder. But I have no experience with Steelhead and Ypsilon. As you might have already figured out, there are 2 ways of doing LOMC amplification. With SUT & without SUT (all electronic). Both camps have strong followings. IME, an all electronic phonostage with high dynamic range, low noise, low electronic artefacts is not an easy act. Very difficult in fact. Even a Pass Labs XP25 sounds better when paired with a well matched SUT into its MM input than its direct MC input. So even Nelson Pass struggles with it. Hence one should be very careful of choosing a high gain all electronic MC phono. There are many one-man brands which I call "designer" audiophile brands who make such exotic designs bypassing conventional methods. I stay away from them at least when choosing such sophisticated engineering hardware.

The EMIA CR that I had was good but had some dynamic compression which bothered me. Tonally too, it was not exactly neutral. The FM 122 Mk2 is very good. It has a solid state presentation but still one of the more complete sounding SS phonos I have heard. DSA phono was outright SS sounding, bam bam thank you mam types, lacked subtlety. The really good ones which are lifetime keepers are Kondo GE-10, Technical Brain TEQ-Zero, Silbatone SQ-107 & EMT JPA66 Mk3. These are my personal all time best phonostages to buy. Incidentally they all use SUTs.

BTW, I have also heard the FM 222 Mk2 extensively in an all FM system. It is very expensive and overall very good sounding too. Neutral and dynamic. But it lacks a bit of that final finesse in flow which allows you to melt into the musical piece. It is a weak complain though.

"have 10-15 years left of good hearing, so I may as well spend my money on something I can enjoy for a while. . . "

We're only here once.

drbond-

Hopefully your diagnosis ISN'T correct, and deterioration is MUCH slower. For me it's MASSIVE tinnitus/7K khz and above is all but gone for me. Compliments the rest of my medical baggage(plenty)

While this  isn't  in the upper echelon of "higher fi," it was an Agon darling 10 or so years ago. The build quality looks a little cheap, but all reports seem to say the same thing-excellent all tube phono stage.

https://positive-feedback.com/Issue57/nvo.htm

https://www.ambienceaudio.com/product.htm?id=qk9nthln

Happy hunting.

I have heard the DSA Phono2 in my own home, demonstrated for me by its creator. I compared it to my tweaked Atma-sphere MP1.  The DSA did everything well, best of all, I thought it was not especially "solid-state" sounding compared to the MP1.  The best SS units these days should not be distinguishable SQ-wise from the best tube or hybrid phono stages.  The MP1 is another unit worth your consideration.  Drawback would be it only offers one phono input pair.  Advantage would be it has a built in linestage of very high quality.  The Phono2 was incredibly flexible; if the Phono3 sounds even better, maybe you ought to audition it.  Then there are the many megabuck full function preamplifiers and/or phono stages from Solution (Solution 750), Constellation (see their Reference Series), DarTZeel, and others.  Plebeians like those of us who inhabit these forums are unlikely to have validated opinions on those stratospherically priced units, except maybe for Mike Lavigne.

@drbond, I cannot separate one or the other systems in terms of performance. Like my two children (lol). They have different design philosophies yet they both arrive at outstanding levels of music reproduction. Both extremely dynamic, natural and engaging. In good recordings, you are certainly part of the audience in the front table. They can reproduce equally well large scale events or a duet. The FMA will provide more fine-tuning on the spot for cartridge matching but so can the Ypsilon with custom or special order SUTs, if you have difficult loads. Regarding A/B comparison of the phono, I have not done as the two systems are in different continents. Even though the FM122 is easily transportable and works in 100-240V, the turntables and cartridges would be different. Therefore, never done. I enjoy both systems equally as I have tried to maximize performance for the budget and space. Apologies for not being as concrete as you would have liked. In any case, I would recommend an audition before you buy. When I was selecting my systems, I visited both manufacturers for audition as there were no dealers near me. They were both kind enough to facilitate. Hopefully, you do not have to do so. Good luck