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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I second the bottle head. I’ve never heard of anything less that stellar come from those guys. 
However, if the guy is not up to that type of effort in learning to solder and assemble, the schiit mani really is a very good alternative to onboard phono stages. It’s clean and clear. It won’t give the greatest tone or the boldest sound but it really does a very good job of passing along a clean and full sounding signal. Not great for MC but gets the job done pretty darn well for MM. I’m still putting off getting a new one because my mani actually does sound good. 
Good job on the Elac though. Those are some damn fine sounding speakers for the price. 
Glad to see folks passing on the hobby. It’s a very rewarding one once a fella knows what it can offer. 
This whole thread was worth it for the comment from Miller carbon! The Basie Sinatra album. Damn! That’s cool. I’m on it. I checked it out and must have a copy on wax! Thanks MC. You’re the man
Why not explore the second hand market, dealer trade ins etc, must be some decent $400 units going for around the $200 Mark.