Raul, I have no comment on your other statements, but 600 to 1000 ohms is not really a problem for driving almost any amplifier one might want to use, including solid state types. Not many amplifiers present an input impedance below 10K ohms. Even such an amplifier, if it does exist, could be driven pretty well from a 1000-ohm source. So, I would not eliminate the Brinkmann from consideration solely based on that parameter. But that's just my opinion.
As an aside, I also have to wonder at your statement: "The worst place to handle an audio signal is in a phono stage no matters what." Do you know of any phono stages that don't handle audio signals? If so, what are they handling?
