Tube phono preamp help please.


Looking for a new tube phono preamp. Only caveats - must be silver or wood (to match components) and be $500 or so or under. Looking at Pro-ject Tube Box II SE or Consonance PM-6. Is there anything else I should look at? Please keep conditions in mind. Many thanks!

JP
jpstereo
My Yaqin MS-12B outperforms Bellari.
With tubes changed to Telefunken 12AX7 and RCA 12AU7, it sounds even better. With new tubes, it would be around $400. Yes, it is silver.
I've owned both the Jolida and the Pro-ject. I personally liked the Pro-ject the best.
I agree with the Jolida JD9a. I bought mine from the ebay seller below - it was shipped to me directly from Jolida. I haven't tried the Pro-ject, but did have the Bellari (don't recommend it), and other phono stages. I'm very happy with my Jolida.

Jolida JD9A
I'd pick the Tube Box over the Jolida, warmer and more musical in my setup. The Bellari is also a contender at a much lower price.
I have a Pro-ject Tube Box SE and i upgraded to it from a Zphono. Good move love the sound but at 4x the price with about 2-3 times the sound improvement.
I second the Jolida. Cool part with tubes is you can roll them to (in some cases) achieve better sonics. Also Rogue is another to look into. Very close to the Jolida. Bellari VP 129 is another lower cost option. For slightly more you can pick up a used ARC PH3.
Bottlehead Seduction with 36 dB gain is very well regarded in the $500 or less range. Your Ortofon 2M Red with 5.5 mV output will match with it fine.

Check the forums: Bottlehead Seduction Phono Stage question