Best sounding phono preamp under $600

Simon - I appreciate your comments; they've been very helpful. You mentioned you are not a solid state fan when it comes to phono stages; curious what tube phono preamps you like the best; is the Quicksilver one of your favorites? Thanks, Bob

Wow that sure gives me a lot of potential choices; has anyone had any experience with the Pro-ject Phono Box SE, Creek OBH 15 or the Monolithic PS2 ? For another $100 would the Bluenote Phono 1 be worth considering ?

Thanks Mark; I obviously was not quite awake early this morning when I read your comments. I will definately check out the Musical Surroundings Phonomena and the Denon 103R cartridge. Was hoping to be able to stick with high output moving coils but can go either way since the Jolida has outputs for both high and low output cartridges.

Forgot to ask Mark if you are running the battery powered version of the Musical Surroundings Phonomena.

Simon - thanks again for your comments; I know what you mean about Quicksliver; I met them one year at the CES show; they are a down-to-earth group of people and I was very impressed with their vacuum tube preamp and power amplifiers. I shall keep an eye out for the Quicksilver phono preamp.

Mark - thanks for your suggestion on the Musical Fidelity X-LPS; I will definately check it out. I'm in the process of getting a Nottingham Horizon with an RB300 arm and will be running either a Ortofon X5 or Denson DL-160; may have to look into going back to the Denon 103; had that with a Linn LP-12/Ittock years ago but was using a cheap Denon stepup transformer at the time. I see our musical tastes are very similar; I've been listening to stuff like Cat Steven's Tea for the Tillerman and Alan Parson's Gaudi; just picked up a bunch of used albums at a local antique dealer for $1 apiece that look like they've never been played. Many of these old albums sound better than the CD.

Colitas - I presently am using the Jolida JD-9 and really like it with NOS Amperex 12AX7s.

Simon - thanks for your comments; there's obviously several good phono preamps in the $600 range and lots of opinions on which one is the best. I've seen the Musical Surroundings Phonomena mentioned quite a bit and will probably give it a listen.

Thanks Mark; I don't think I'll bother with the battery power supply for the Phonomena.