Great phono pre

These are all way out of my league of experience, so I can't comment - but I would suggest you pop over to the analog forum instead of the amps/preamps forum for advice on these.

good point. thanks!

Frankpiet,
If you are willing to buy "old Japanese technology" which was truly top of its class (which you obviously do with your choice of TTs), you might try the Pioneer HZ-1 headamp as the first gain stage on your phono amplification. It is truly superlative - and is quiet in a way that people with Micro Seiki air bearing tables understand 'quiet.' They don't come around much but it is the best I have found so far. The technology in this is truly an audio designer's dream. I currently have mine plugged into the matching C-Z1 preamp, which is also quite good (same technology and same tweaker mentality built into it). I also run it into my ZYX Artisan stage and the stage in my Jadis JP80. My favorite pathway is probably the last mentioned. The Jadis is probably not the quietest of the three but it just feels right. I could imagine buying another phono pre eventually, but it will be a while before I find a better headamp I expect.

Do you need a phono pre with more than one input? Do you want to run balanced or single-ended?

I think the Einstein is really wonderful, and if you're in the league of the Boulder, this seems like a good choice.

I had the aesthetix Janus for a while, and auditioned the stand-alone rhea phono stage, which was very very versatile. I loved being able to change loading by remote, and it had plenty of inputs and outputs.

Let me know how you like the boulder.

I all. I´ve just bought a very very fine phonostage even surpassing the nagra´s. It´s a very very hard to get (as the designer doesn´t really care about time and production issues) Omtec Antares CP-1i V5 phonostage. At a dealers show room it bests the Nagra BPM, the Whest as well as the Ayre P-5xe in most areas. No downsides.