Gold Note PH-1000 Best Phono Preamp?

He spoke to specific engineers who were personally involved in setting up the most commonly used Neumann lathe. There was complete agreement among them. When I was a kid in the 50s, my parents had a H-K receiver that offered a choice of 2 or 3 equalization curves, plus RIAA. But that was all mono. Fremer does intimate that the conversation to stereo brought in the particular Neumann that was standardized to RIAA. It’s certainly logical that a mono LP might benefit from some esoteric equalization curve. Also, there’s no accounting for listener taste. If you get a charge out of playing with equalization, the PH1000 is certainly a way to be able to do it.

But that’s just a shot in the dark. Don’tcha think?

I just read Fremer's review of the PH1000 in S'phile published in 2022.  He spends most of the space saying why the multiple alternative compensation curves are unnecessary. He offers evidence that RIAA was the standard, almost immediately after the introduction of stereo.  (But the conversion from mono to stereo recording was not simultaneous in all countries where records were made, and he fails to provide dates.) He does not really say much about SQ, which is what we really care about.  This suggests to me he was not overwhelmed by the SQ.

I don't mind the use of the word "best", but if you want to catch the interest of forum members here, it's "best" to follow up that adjective with some reasons why. Tell me what makes the PH1000 so special, in other words.