Entry level phono stage

In February's Stereophile Michael Fremer has a review of the Bellari VP 129 where he ends his review with
"The Bellari VP129 gets my highest recommendation and is the budget phono preamp I will now enthusiaticlyy ecommend for every genre of music....If you are thinking of taking the analogue plunge and you listen to a lot f classical music, get a Bellai VP129 and a budget turntable and I promise that your CD's will start to gather dust."
I have not heard it and have a much more expensive phono stage but I have found his recommendations ususally help full.

I was going to recommend the Bellari. For the money it seems like a nice phono stage. I haven't heard it myself, but reviews have been positive. Maybe you can get it on a 30 day trial and check it out.

I have a Bellari VP129 in my office system. It's a steal in its price range and it's internal components are surprisingly good at this level. It has quite good resolution, better than average bass response and compliments my Oracle Paris with Grado Reference well. I did upgrade the tube to a Siemens which further enhanced resolution and offered a bit more detail. All in all, this phono stage is going to be hard to beat for $200. Best of luck in your search....

The Bellari is quite nice at that price, really not bad even compared to the Project Tube Box which is I believe is around $500. The Bellari has the same nice rich sound, just a bit less resolution. Tube rolling may help even further, also it does have a nice look.