New Budget phono from Parasound

U call 1495 budget??? That said I have a vendetta and so being from the same designer I can imagine it will be good

I just upgraded my JC3 to a JC3+.  The 3+ is a lot better than the 3, which is amazing considering how great the 3 sounds.  
I won't be buying a Jr but I think it's great that they are making a more affordable version.  They even added the variable cart loading feature of the 3+ on the Jr.  That's a pretty nice feature for a $1500 unit.  Are there any other companies offering this much quality for $1.5K?  
Parasound already offers some true budget phono preamps that are really good.    

It seems to me that the better deal would be the Parasound Halo integrated amp. For a grand more, you get a Stereophile Class A component (most of the other Class A Integrateds are thousands more), a highly rated MM/MC phono stage (that is probably pretty close in performance to the standalone unit under discussion), a high current monster amp section making 160/240 wpc into 8/4 ohms, analog bass management circuitry including high and low pass filters and front panel controls, a built-in DAC that accepts input from USB, coax, and Toslink, that decodes PCM up to 32-bit/384Khz, plus DSD. Actually, the DAC has so much range it makes my head spin. 

That's a lot for an extra $1K, plus it replaces up to 4 standalone components--phono pre, line stage, amp, and DAC (plus bass mgmt and a headphone amp and output jack).

Anyone compared Parasound phono to Sutherland ? He makes $995 phono, it is supposed to be very good. Then he offers $1400 and $2200 models and further up.

IMO and IME, the variable resistance is actually fairly critical, more critical than some of the internal component choices that can be made or more important than buying a better unit or not.

Ie, that if considering a preamp that is supposed to be better than the jr unit mentioned here..that the better unit had better have a variable resistance trim as well. Otherwise it might be a waste of time.

It is very critical in that my experience is: that to get the best sound out of a given low to mid output MC cartridge..exact Resistance is a critical thing. 

Ie, not 525 ohms, or 487, but exactly 511 ohms -if that is the number that comes up. And given the opportunity to try resistances by the inch.....this is what you will find. That with low output and low-mid output MC carts--exact resistances become critical. 'Easily heard' kinda critical. IMO and IME.