Looking 4 a high quality phono line stage $5k-$8k

Correction: I was mistaken about the Aesthetix Io connector. The Aesthetix Io has both XLR and RCA jacks for the phono inputs (no DIN). But the first gain stage assumes a single ended input (whether XLR or RCA) and converts the signal to balanced at that stage. The Rhea has RCA inputs only and similarly converts to balanced at the first gain stage.

Thanks for your clarification, Mmike84, and good luck with your search.

Rushton-

My arms terminate in DIN. My cabling is DIN (from the arm to XLR at Preamp). Since the signal is balanced to start with I would prefer to maintain that as opposed to converting in the preamp. Any other suggestions?

I also own a ASR Basis Exlusive...and It is simply amazing. Not only can you adjust gain/capacitance...but it has a separate batt power supply. You can go from batt to electric. 2 Inputs with separate adjustments for each. If you want resolution, dynamics, and dead silent operation...this is the way to go. I use mine with a origin live TT with ZYX cartridge...Thiel speakers...Rowland pre....the combo is fantastic. Good luck

Aptquark-

What did you compare it to?

My vote goes to Einstein "The Turntable's Choice" phonostage. My wealthier (or crazier) audiophile friends have played with IO, Rhea, ARC PH7, ASR Basis Exclusive, ART Audio Reference. We had in term listened to all of the above in various systems, and compared them side-by-side at various times. They all had different flavors and really came down to system synergy and personal preference. The Einstein is probably the most non-descript of the bunch. It's really laughable when you look at it. It's a tiny, light-weight soda can on a stand. On the marketing material, it says it is made of some premium selected "aged" transistors. Pound by pound, this would be the most expensive of them all. But once we gave it a listen, we were all surprised how good it is. My friend started with a single-ended version and had just recently received the balanced version which sounded even better. The wait was like 8 months.

It may be due to component synergy as two of these guys were using ARC linestages (Ref 2 Mk II and Ref 3), but the ARC PH7 also sounded phenomenal. My beef with it is that the output is just too low to be used with low-output MC cartridges, and that it does not have balanced input/output.

FrankC