Best value phono $1-1.5k

Heed is another option at $1k.

dealer disclosure.

The Heed is an extraordinary value IMHO; very neutral, perhaps erroring slightly, if at all, on the side of "musicality", with no noticeable additive undesirables, and extremely flexible; bettering most phono stages up to $3k. An excellent company for cost effective compact solid state electronics, very well known in Europe but not so well known here yet. I have not compared the PS Audio directly. I would guess a more interesting comparison might be the newer Musical Surroundings Nova Phonomena, but again, I'm guessing the Heed would win out there as well. I plan on making both those comparisons in the near future.

dealer disclosure

I have demoed it here in my own system, compared to my (upgraded caps, nude Vishay loading resisters and other tweeks) Trumpet. As you might expect, the Trumpet had that special tube magic, with a bit more textural finesse; but the Quasar was very nice indeed, much quieter and was much more flexible in terms of gain and loading.

I would say that the Heed was more dynamic, likely because of the gain
structure, as the Trumpet, essentially a MM stage being driven by a medium low
output MC cartridge, is being used at it's limit. I don't remember my
impressions of the soundstage differences except in terms of how the textural
finesse translates into a more refined sense of space.