Stand out phono stages

The moving coil section in my Deja Vu preamp. Outstanding.

What ever happened to Mr Pedrillo? He disappeared a number of years ago.

Has anyone heard the Van Den Hul The Grail SB if so can you comment.

Back from a long hiatus,
Lewm, to answer your question:
Gain for the RCA outputs can be set to 60, 50 or 40dB. Gain will be 6dB higher in each setting if using the XLR outputs (66, 56, or 46dB). There is an input impedance switch tab of 47kohms on the back of the unit that may be switched up to 10R for a fixed low output MC cart setting.
Input capacitance for high-output MC and MM cartridges can be set to 100, 200, 300, 420, or 520 pF.
Input impedance (input capacitance is irrelevant for low-output MC cartridges) can be set manually from 10 - 1200 Ohms.
The Pro-ject really offers almost endless options.
My two cents; nothing under $1,000.00 beats the DV P-75 MKIII when used with ANY low output DV cart of your liking. They are simply a match made in heaven, especially in enhancer mode.
That said, I cannot think of any other Phono-Pre that would work better for both of my MM carts (Sure V15 Type IV/Jico SAS and AT-ML170/occ) than the Pro-ject Phono Box RS Phono Pre.

I have not enough experience to state which is the best phonostage, but I love my Klyne 6PE.
if you can suggest some model that can better it under 2k$ (used is ok), you are welcome.
I'm very curious about Herron and obviously Klyne series 7, but they are not imported in Italy where I live and it would be too expensive to buy them overseas and have it shipped here.
I'm curious about Parasound JC3+ too, but -though it is imported- it is quite difficult to find used (and new it is way too expensive to me).