Natural, musical, dynamic phono preamp 700 used

The stock GCPH is not so hot sounding. At least the one I heard, far from musical and tonally pleasing.

Not sure about the totally modded units though like from Underwood Hifi and the like.

I have both the GCPH and Dynavector. The GCPH is more versatile, and, most importantly for me, has balanced outputs. But overall I prefer the sound from the Dynavector. It's more engaging and organic.

My vote is for the Dynavector; it's a great value.

Michael

Tonally accurate, musical, dynamic? EAR 834P. Have lived with this preamp (highly modified), and can tell you that it sounds (now, and pre-mods) like what you are looking for. Getting on in age? So are LP's; in the opinion of many.

No offense to the EAR 834P (which is a decent performer) but I am afraid there are newer phono stages out there which give this aging piece of equipment more than a run for its money. Have had the opportunity to spend time with the 834p also, so this is IMO. Its better than the Grado I have sure, but the best for my budget, not so sure about that. appreciate your thoughts though.

I have a cheap ART DJ II that is a great deal but I never intended to keep it long term. I have the same budget as Jeremy72 and am looking forward to hearing a better stage in my system.

If gear makes a difference in stage selection, I have the following:
MH 7.1 w/Goldring 2400
Rogue Cronus Magnum Integrated Amp
Energy RC10 speakers

I do not like harsh clinical sounding gear. In the future, I may upgrade my cartridge to an Ortofon 2M Black, Nagaoka MP-500 or something else you guys might suggest in the $5-700 range.

One thing I do like about the Art is the adjustable gain. I use it every time I play an album to get the best output from the stage.

Maybe adjustable gain is not as big a deal as I think in a nicer stage like the ones being discussed here.

So, is it:
GCPH
Dynavector
JD9
or something else?

Hope this is not a hijack Jeremy as we are talking about the same thing.