Help me choose a phono pre

Hey guys,

thank you so much for your inputs. I did some research after reading all the comments and sort of settled on the MM Pro by Mr Fiddler.  However, he’s on vacation for a week and will be placing the order once he’s back. In the meanwhile, I stumbled upon this video on YouTube by pearl acoustics, who talked very highly of the Fosi Box X5. Since I had the time, figured I’d order one off Amazon and see how it works.  Strange option but given its price, I have little to lose. I can always return it. It’s arriving today and will post my impressions in a day or two. 
 

Just so you know, I had narrowed it down to the Sutherland Kc vibe,  Mm Pro and Darlington labs. I’m sort of excited to try the Fosi. Let’s see!

Hey guys,

I'm at a loss of words for how good the Fosi sounds. The soundstage, imaging, details.. it’s almost like it has breathed a new life into my records. 
 

But while I’m super impressed, this is also my first experience with a phono preamp. Makes me wonder how much better the likes of Sutherland, Darlington and Michael Fiddler be.. 

im really confused. I feel like I complicated matters by ordering the Fosi. What would you do?

@facten Thank you! It was a brief listening session and sounded really really good. For background, I have a 15 month old, so don't get much time to listen in the first place. Its gonna be hard to spend hours of fiddling around with the setup and/r run extensive A/B tests.  I'm going to spend a few more hours with the Fosi across diff albums and make a call.

One other question regarding placement of the gear (TT, Phono and Power, etc).  What i see on a lot of forums is that the TT and Phono Pre Amp must be on a different rack away from speaker, amplifer, etc.  But at the same time, it says the interconnect must not be too long.  So what is the ideal placement if space and cables were not a constraint?   I'm thinking of getting a record storage and can potentially move the TT and Phono Preamp to it.. right now I have everything on one rack between my 2 speakers.. 

@kofibaffour That's very reassuring. Thank you so much. 

Hey guys, apologies for the radio silence. Got a bit tied up.

i ended up getting the Michael fiddler’s spartan 20 and returned the Fosi. The spartan 20 is dead silent, literally no sound at all. Fosi albeit great value for money, had this constant noise. Also, it sounded a little bloated in the mids and mid bass.. everything was a bit exaggerated.. the spartan 20 sounds extremely natural.. a bit unexciting at first but the clarity, and naturalness has definitely grown on me. 

@kofibaffour is the spartan 20’s MC good enough for LOMC carts? I’m considering upgrading to a Hana ML. Currently using an AT540ML.