How do I choose a phono preamp?

VPI

https://www.vpiindustries.com/products

Their Unipivot Arms are designed to simply disconnect a mini-din connector and lift off. You can have a few arm wands with a variety of cartridges pre-mounted, i.e. two: 1 Stereo, one Mono ready to use, 

I’ve seen/heard Steve Leung’s prior VPI setup at VAS, he has a collection of arms and cartridges, he demo’s his cartridges and/or your rebuilt cartridge for you if you pick it up.

Your dealer could mount, align, and all you would need to do is adjust the tracking weight yourself, and anti-skate. Perhaps Dr. Feikert is a better choice, let the dealer add a second arm and you just pick one.

IF you think you might, then you need to solve how you pick which arm. 

You might ask your dealer if he would service a Luxman PD-444 at your home for you if you bought one. That is my pick of all the ideas I have blabbed about.

https://skyfiaudio.com/products/luxman-pd444-vintage-turntable-w-new-lyra-delos-mc-cartridge

I just noticed, it's 120v version, so no need for a 100/120 v transformer like I need for my JVC TT81 which is 100v version.

Technics turntables are the most simple and solid turntables. Very well made with a removable headshell that makes trying other cartridges a breeze. PS Audio Stellar Phono is fantastic. The used market should have one for $1500ish. Many great cartridges. Ortofon is solid. $5000 should get you started very nicely.

I gather from lewms comments that your speakers are excellent.

How to pick a cartridge: 

https://www.leson.org/choose-phono-cartridge/

Aside from the tonal characteristics people try to write about

I advise paying attention to 

1. IMAGING. Both WIDE channel separation (high 20’s, even low 30’s), and TIGHT channel balance (1.0 db, even 0.5db) are needed to properly present the Phantom Imaging the engineers put in the grooves.

2. TRACKING FORCE. the published imaging specs were achieved at heavier or lighter tracking force? Lighter is preferred due to:

a. stylus life, lighter will last longer

b. lp groove wear. successfully tracking lighter will be less wear.

c. anti-skate. amount of force required is related to tracking force

3. STYLUS PROFILE, see link above

4. CANTILEVER MATERIAL, see link above

With a 15K budget, I would allocate about 10-11K for table & cart, 3-5K for phono stage, 1K for cleaning records. With 10-11K for a TT (with ~8/3K split between table and cart), there are lots of options. I would figure out what kind of preferences you have:

- look: traditional DJ (Technics), something with wood (LP12-ish), more of a skeleton design Rega/VPI?

- Are you into 78s? Yes/No

- Do you want option for second tone arm, say for mono cart?

- Do you want anything automatic? Say arm return at end of record? Or fully manual?

- Any preference for direct drive (Technics) vs. belt (pretty much everything else)?

Once you have answered those questions, it will narrow down the field substantially, make it more approachable.