Tube Pre Amp + Tube Phono Section

Any of the CAT SLI Series Preamps

Armin, you really need to say what your budget is and what other components you'll be using them with. With ARc and CJ gear, there's alot to pick from but it'll all come down to how much you want to spend.

Mike.

Mike, I lef the budget out on purpose just to see the feedback I get. My budget is about 2K, however, seems like I can mix and match some used pieces to even get me the higher gain for low-output MC cartridges for this price.

I own some decent pieces, in no particluar order:
-a few Pass power amps,
-Threshold power amps,
-couple of Dyna 70s,
-Dyna MKIIIs
-Gyrodec+SME V (multiple cartridges MM and MC)
-Thorens 124+SME3009SIII
-Maggies 1.6
-JM Lab Tantal 515
-Adcom GFP-565
and quite a few vintage Marantz and other pieces that are more for nostalgic values.

I have never owned a tube preamp. Recently I listened to an SP8 with a high output Denon 103, it blew me away and I decided to get serious about it.

Thanks,
Armin

I am really enjoying my Granite Audio tube preamp.
Great build quality and layout.
It is recommended to only drive 2.0 mV or above cartridges however. Although I have succesfully used a Shelter 901 with it.

For $2K budget however you would have to get lucky.
Another option that would fit your budget is the Audio Note M-2 w/ phono, used of course.

I have experience with the CJ Premier 15 phono stage. It's a very nice piece, around $2K used here on the 'Gon. It's very, very smooth, but doesn't mate well with the really low output cartridges due to its fixed 53dB gain. The system was pretty bloody noisy with my Benz Lo.4 (actual output ~0.3mv).

It's most objectionable deficiency is a lack of deep bass, which curiously is much weaker than even my predecessor low-end solid state phono stages. From about 70 Hz and up, this one is really good, approaching some of the best, although not particularly matching the Aesthetix IO or Rhea. (I haven't heard either of the Aesthetix in my system, so I can't compare that well.)