Preamp with near-reference quality built in phono?


First some background. About 6 months ago I decided that I want to get off of the continuous upgrade path, and plotted a 2-3 year course for purchasing high quality, reference or near-reference components. The first itch I satisfied was my digital source; I threw away all of my "budget" transports, DACs, upsamplers, digital cables, etc., and purchased a high-quality single-box machine that does a number of things well and has the most musical red book playback I have heard. I then turned my attention to analog. I have not finalized my choice of arm and cartridge, but my table is flexible enough to support many.

Here is my current dilemma: I currently want to upgrade my phono preamp to something that compliments the rest of my system a little better, and that is flexible enough to work with as I settle in on a cartridge/arm combo (for example MM and MC would be nice). Concomitantly, I have begun to wonder if my decision to go with a passive linestage was a good one for the long term. I have read the arguments both for and against the passive, and having tried mine in someone else's system, I have found that its performance can be grossly impacted by changes in surrounding components. So my question is this: does a full function preamp, with phono, exist where the built in phono stage is comparable to best of breed, stand alone phono preamps? Since this is a long-term project, budget is not a huge concern, although I would like to stay under $10k if possible.
sdatch

Showing 2 responses by flg2001

I have never been in your case (always have had outboard phono stages) but seems to me like that both the CAT and the Manley Steelhead could come to your rescue.

I also had a Gryphon Elektra preamp where a phono board could be installed at extra cost. The Elektra has been for me one of the best preamps I have had, although I never installed such board in mine, you can try their new models as well.

I am sure you will get additional feedback in this forum from people who have lived excatly your case.

Hope this helps

Fernando
I agree with Siddh fully - I had a quite similar experience with Avalon as well, great speakers for my Rowlands, Metaxas and Gryphon (and now Pass), but when mated with tubes I lost many of the sonic attributes of the spkr design.

You canĀ“t go wrong with many of the fine options listed in the thread, if possible try to arrange a home listen trial and-or the best deal in terms of price in your short list.

Wish you luck

Fernando