Looking for a great phono pre-amp in the $1000 or less range

If you ate compelled to purchase a Phonostage, the Mr Nixie Digna is going to be hard to beat at your price range.

I have owned this Phon' for many years and have also taken this to Bake Off's, where its small size has been a deception to its performance, it has been a show stopper where the Values of comparisons have been up to £5K. 

I still use it regularly as I thoroughly enjoy what it does, even though I have a Bespoke Built Phon' in use now, that was designed to offer plenty of what the Digna Offers and surpass it in other areas.  

If you're patient you can find an E.A.T. E-Glo Petit for less than $1K. Sounds great, provides tube rolling options, dead quiet, and all the adjustments can be made from the front. Highly recommended.

I agree with ghdprentice; "Phonostages have been produced for a very long time, so buying used is a great way to leverage your money."

The used hybrid phono preamps from Audio Research are hard to beat.  They have a J-FET input for low noise and a vacuum tube gain and output stage for great sonics.  A PH3, PH3-SE, PH5 and PH6 are great values for the money.

ARC = Astute Right Choice…. 

but OP has a pretty good list going…

So I got really lucky and found a Black Ice Audio Fusion F159 hybrid tube preamp on US Audiomart ($1,875 retail), within my budget.   It’ll be delivered tomorrow but it’s a  Christmas gift (from the wife to me), so I’ll not get to try her out until after Christmas!  Reviews for this are very positive.  I’ll follow up with my listening impression!.