I've owned a AI M3 and two M3a's. Clear, detailed, musical, full of authority. And it's fun to experiment with different tubes (tube set is not expensive). AI has been around forever, in audiophile years, and as far as I can tell is still very popular.
Art
ps: you will need to be careful with an M3a in that the steps on the volume control are spaced widely apart. There are internal dip switches to lower the gain in the event the steps are too wide or gain too high.
pps: when you buy an M3a you have to choose whether to get the MM version (all tube) or MC version (tube with ss Curl board). The Curl board has slots to let you easily experiment with different loading. I have found this to be extremely important with MC cartridges. Many medium priced or even expensive external phono stages lack this feature for MC.
Art
ps: you will need to be careful with an M3a in that the steps on the volume control are spaced widely apart. There are internal dip switches to lower the gain in the event the steps are too wide or gain too high.
pps: when you buy an M3a you have to choose whether to get the MM version (all tube) or MC version (tube with ss Curl board). The Curl board has slots to let you easily experiment with different loading. I have found this to be extremely important with MC cartridges. Many medium priced or even expensive external phono stages lack this feature for MC.