The rich Saudis will scoff at spending less than $1000 on a phono preamp, but you really should give the IFI phono preamp a trial.
It has EXTERNAL switches for gain settings for MM and MC cartridges of various output levels. I tried it with a middle of the road AT MC cartridge, and I love it. Zero noise, sounds lovely. It tests out also as having a perfect RIAA EQ which is one of the most important characteristics of a phono preamp, and very few test that well.
Oh and it has balanced outputs as well as single ended. And ouf course ground connection.