Hi Rauls,
Thanks for your comment! Would certainly make an effort to try out your suggestion to see if it makes any difference to me.
Just to recap my phono progress since around the year 2000, when I got back into vinyl. I started with the Herron, than progress to the Pass Xono (yes, I know some members consider it grey and sterile, but not to my ears :-) ). In the meantime, I also tried out my friends Supratek, and got myself a MFA MC Ref preamp completed with the phono stage.
I was very interested in the Aesthetix IO Eclipse as I was already using the Callisto Eclipse, so I knew their sound character! The problem was that I never got the chance to audition the IO, that was until last week! Yes, the IO has a completely different characteristics compared to the Xono, and I found its performance vastly superior.
Now that I am so impressed with it, I just placed an order for a set. Is the IO the best? Probably not, but it is the best that I have heard (which may not be many, but at least including the high-end FM and Boulder), that is, of course, to my ears only! YMMV :-)