what preamp to use

Limited to $100 look for a used Creek OBH-8. They show up here and eBay regularly.

Now for $30-$40 you could go to Radio Shack and get the battery powered one they sell. Don't laugh; it is actually pretty good. Battery power gives it very low noise. Google the term LITTLE RAT PHONO PREAMP and you'll see it is popular with some budget mined audiophiles.

Hey Scott, try the radio shack one, if you don't like the way it sounds, your only out 30 bucks. But if you want to spend the extra, that Creek preamp mentioned above would sound really good with the music hall table, and you should be able to get one easily for around $100, i think you'd like it alot better.

As I recall, some were reporting great results using TWO battery powered Rat Shack phono pre's- one for each channel. Maybe start with one and add the second later if budget is tight.

Regards
Jim

I think it is "TireGuy" that uses two Little Rats. He also does some additional modifications.

what is your opinion on the Jolida, JD-9A?

For under $100, I recommend the Hagerman Bugle http://www.hagtech.com/bugle.html#bugle. You buy a blank circuit board ($35) and the parts ($30) from Digikey, which you solder on to the board. Ideally you should have some soldering exprience, but I built one without any electronics knowledge or soldering experience. You can also buy it for $150 fully assembled.

The disadvantage of the Bugle is that it requires two 9-volt batteries that only last about 16 hours. To fix this, you can add a power supply that Jim Hagerman sells, switch to more efficient (but lower fidelity opamps), or use a longer lasting lead acid battery (as recommended by John Elison on audioasylum) http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=vinyl&n=342009&highlight=+elison+lead+battery&r=&session=.

I compared the Bugle to the NAD PP-2 ($129 retail), and liked the Bugle better.

I use the Music Hall MMF phono pre-amp. It is right in your price range, new. My system consists of an Arcam AVR200 and the Music Hall mmf-7. Although I don't claim to have the depth of knowledge or obsession (with all due respect) of a lot of the folks here, I do like good sound and this combination has been working well for me.