One thing that has not yet been addressed in this thread is impedance compatibility. If the OP is using the MC601 preamp listed in his system description, and plans to connect the phono stage to any of the preamp's inputs other than the unbalanced "tuner" and "aux" inputs (which have 50K input impedances), there may be issues with most of the phono stages that have been mentioned.
The input impedance of the MC601's balanced input does not appear to be specified. And the input impedances of the unbalanced inputs other than the two I mentioned above are only 10K. I'm pretty certain that a 10K load would be decidedly non-optimal for the Rhea and the Herron, and possibly also for the Allnic. And ARC specifies for the PH7 a recommended load of 50K to 100K, with 10K indicated as "minimum."
If the OP's intention is to connect the phono stage to the unbalanced tuner or aux inputs of the MC601, however, there won't be an impedance compatibility issue with any of these phono stages.
Regards,
-- Al
The input impedance of the MC601's balanced input does not appear to be specified. And the input impedances of the unbalanced inputs other than the two I mentioned above are only 10K. I'm pretty certain that a 10K load would be decidedly non-optimal for the Rhea and the Herron, and possibly also for the Allnic. And ARC specifies for the PH7 a recommended load of 50K to 100K, with 10K indicated as "minimum."
If the OP's intention is to connect the phono stage to the unbalanced tuner or aux inputs of the MC601, however, there won't be an impedance compatibility issue with any of these phono stages.
Regards,
-- Al