???Phono Preamp for Rega RP3 W/Elys2 ????


Just purchased a Rega RP3 with Elys2 and looking for reccomendations for a decent preamp. My system includes the following;
Paradigm Studio 100 mains and servo sub
Parasound preamp
Theta Dreadnaught Amp
Kimber Kable thruout.
Have been searching on line for suggestions. Currently considering Jolida jd9, Cambridge Audio 651p, and a few others. Tube vs SS??? Prefer to keep around the $500 ballpark. Thank you all for your opinions. Im a vinyl virgin and a bit nervous diving in.
audiofire5228
Just an alert...the Pangea P100 power supplies are now 69 bucks (I have 2 of the full price ones), and they work really well with a Cambridge 640P.
I have had my Jolida JD9 for two years now and love it. I had considered the Vincent PHO-8 with its rave review in TAS, but liked the idea of getting some tubes into the signal path. The Vincent distinguishes itself with a large, separate power supply. The Jolida has a similar-sized power supply in the corner of a single full-width chassis. I managed to get a demo JD9 for a little less than the Vincent.

The Jolida lends itself easily to tweaking and mods. I swapped in NOS Sylvania Gold 5751s for the stock 12AX7s and put Herbies Tube Dampers on them. I also have a Zu power cord and the unit sits on Vibrapod footers. You can also swap out the opamps for much nicer ones. In most versions this is a pull/replace drop-in replacement with no soldering work.

The other thing that distinguishes the Jolida at this price range is its wide range of adjustability for fine-tuning the cartridge load. It has three levels of gain for MM, HOMC, and LOMC. It has two levels of output as well. In between, it has a wide range of capacitance settings for MM and a wide range of resistance settings for MC. The only other broadly adjustable phono at this price range (that I know of) is the Musical Surroundings Phonomena II, but its minimum capacitance setting is 200 pF, a deal-killer for me.

The Vincent has the standard 100 ohm input for MC carts and 47K ohm for MM carts.
So the V-LPSii has just became available on Audio Advisor today.... and of course at the same time i find a JD9 and simaudio moon 110 both lightly used. Audioitis sucks!
i have the same TT and use the Clearaudio Nano which has a subsonic filter as well - i love it ! highly recommended
In your price range the Jasmine LP2.0MKII is tough to beat. Nicely made piece, available on Ebay.