phono preamp

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?preaphon&1285090869&/Clearly-the-best!-Liberty-Audi

A little more than your budget allows for but check it out anyway.

Peter

A used Gram Slee Era Gold mkV will be a huge step forward in every facet of accurate analog reproduction. There are two for sale here on Audiogon right now for $600.

The PS Audio GCPH has gotten a lot of good reports from owners and sells for $1,000 new, $550-650 used

If you want to stay with tubes, check out this Hagerman Cornet or look for one of (the late) George Wright's phono pres when they pop up from time to time.

Pbnaudio, "a little more"?
How is a suggestion 3x-4x outside of the original poster's budget range even remotely helpful?

Pbnaudio and Liberty audio share the same zip code.
Looks like Peter is promoting a line he carries without a disclaimer.Audiogon members wouldn't do that,would they???

Seems kinda shady. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, though...;0)

Used Wright 100C or 200C. Use it without a linestage to get the most out of it. Use the gain pots for volume control. A little inconvenient because they are small and close together but much better sound this way no matter what preamp you have.

I had the PS Audio GCPH in my system for about 3 years and was very happy with it. That said, I spent almost as much on cables for it as I did the unit itself - eventually settling on Nordost.

While interconnect costs are inescapable, you can go battery powered for phono stages to avoid power cable costs - which I recently did by replacing my GCPH with the Sutherland Ph3D ($1,000 new). It also helps that most of my LP listening is acoustic jazz and it does a wonderful job with that. I've seen the occasional one come up here for around $650.

If battery powered is of interest, Musical Surroundings has a couple of options that are also in your price range used as well.