Helping a kid out


So long story short I got neighbor kid into audio and to appreciate listening to music on something other than a cheap Bluetooth speaker.  He’s pretty young but a good kid, a hard working honest kid.  So far he’s accumulated his old mans Dual turntable that I helped him clean up and installed an Ortofon 2M Blue on it, a nice but older Marantz integrated and a pair of Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2 speakers.  I hooked him up with a pair of Kimber 8TC speaker cables I had retired a while ago (lol, probably making them the most expensive part of his system).  He’s looking to upgrade and I suggested trying out a dedicated phono stage.  I’m assuming his budget is in the $200 range and I told his old man I wouldn’t let him buy something stupid.  I had no idea the sheer volume of phono stages in this price range on the market.  What would you guys and gals suggest?  My knee jerk reaction is Schitt Mani and I read a few good things about a Bellari unit but holy cow the choices are infinite.  Maybe something a little higher end but used?  Extra points if it can be purchased from Amazon but that’s by no means a deal breaker.
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Showing 1 response by ckenr

I have a brand new Bottlehead Seduction with the upgrade that I can let go for $400. Never plugged in.

It was assembled by a Bottlehead technician, who also designs and builds tube amps, here in Seattle.
He gave me a package deal with a Bottlehead BeePre 300B preamp w/ the option (also for sale.) It has about 200 hours of use.

I am currently listening to a VAC Standard preamp w/ MC & MM and a VAC PHI 200 that I bought on this website not too long ago.