People have forgotten how outstanding Jim Hagerman's designs are - both on an absolute basis as well as at their price point.
Do you solder?
Buy a Hagerman Coronet in kit form (~ $400 to build http://www.hagtech.com/cornet2.html), a Dual 1219 or equivalent, and a Dynavector 10x5 high output MC.
If you don't solder and can stretch your budget a bit, buy the built up phono stage for $1199, a 1219 or equivalent, and the cheapest Grado, Ortofon, etc.
Mess around with headshell weights to get the arm mass to agree with the cartridge. I've made a Dual arm (designed more for high compliance carts) work very nicely with a Denon DL103, but adding 5 grams of weight at the headshell (reset tracking force, of course).
Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier
Do you solder?
Buy a Hagerman Coronet in kit form (~ $400 to build http://www.hagtech.com/cornet2.html), a Dual 1219 or equivalent, and a Dynavector 10x5 high output MC.
If you don't solder and can stretch your budget a bit, buy the built up phono stage for $1199, a 1219 or equivalent, and the cheapest Grado, Ortofon, etc.
Mess around with headshell weights to get the arm mass to agree with the cartridge. I've made a Dual arm (designed more for high compliance carts) work very nicely with a Denon DL103, but adding 5 grams of weight at the headshell (reset tracking force, of course).
Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier