Best Phono Stage within 2000 $

Terrific post John.

You're very fortunate in having the opportunity to audition all of them.

Congrats on finding the product that works to your liking. Afterall, that's what it's all about.

Curio,

The Aesthetix Rhea is a great sounding phono stage. It offers unusual flexibility (inputs/outputs/loading, remote, etc) and is beautifully put together. Used prices have dipped below $2500 from time to time, and (with a bit of patience) you might find one at your price. I haven't auditioned quite as many phono stage as John, but I've tried quite a few (including several extremely expensive alternatives). IMHO, the Rhea sounded as good as any - YMMV.

BTW, my analog set-up is more complicated than most. I have multiple tables and use both SE and balanced connections, swap carts occasionally and prefer a single box solution of reasonable size. For this reason, I'd choose the Rhea over any other phono stage I've heard, including Aesthetix' own stab at the bleeding edge, the IO.

Good Luck

Marty

Thanks John, I've been interested in the Allnic, but am concerned about the lack of dynamics on rock. I'll definitely have to check out the Whest.

I've taken a couple Rheas in on trade. They are extremely flexible; the remote loading and other functions are terrific. The used price right now makes they fairly good values.

Both of the units I heard, however, were far too noisy for me.

YMMV

Mikeyc8
You still should heer the Allnic if you can on acoustic music it is very special but for me just not great with rock music. I heard it twice once on my system and once at the dealers and both times just did not allow the energy to come through I tried Eygptian Danza and it made the recording sound really muddy did this to a few other tracks on different LPs as well but on something like Passion by Peter Gabriel really magical.
If my music taste was different would of gone for this phono stage