Phono Stage Upgrade

SPL Phonos is a great SS option. 

Well guys, it was a mix of different equipment in that 2 were kits, and two were commercial. It will come as no surprise to those who may have owned a Vincent PHO8, that it was the first to go. In spite of the fact that it was very quiet, it sounded dead to me. I thought that this would hold me over while I was building a great kit from Glassware Audio. I won't go into it much at this point, but suffice it to say that the instruction manual lacked information that only an engineer might know. This along with a circuit board that had been 'modified' on one channel, but not the other led me to insanity. I sent the whole, heavy unit to a tech in Florida that really does know his stuff. He sent it back in working order (after 4 months) but I only use it for headphones. (Something in the rest of my system probably has issues, as it sounds terrible unless connected to headphones using the same brand of amp). Don't bother to advise me on this particular issue. I am done with it.

  So, I built yet another kit. This time from Pete Millet. Completely different design, and I am very impressed by the sound, yet I had a lot of trouble getting rid of hum issues. The result was to put the power supply in another chassis. Before I forget, the COVID thing made a problem in getting the proper Cinemag inductors for the unit. That cost me about 6 months' time!  As it stands, I am currently using it and will probably continue to for a long time.

 Now, the kicker. I bought a used Jolida JD 'something' I forget. If you leave it alone you will be just fine. But not me. I had to open it up, and go to a site that shows all the mods that can be done. I think that it sounded just as good to start with and the mods only would help if something was already in trouble like an old electrolytic capacitor for example. Don't ask me why, but I sold it. The customer had issues with it that I never had, like picking up radio stations, and some hum, I think. I got the unit back in my system and no, not one issue of that nature. It worked very well. Now the customer has it again, but the same issues continue. Is this Hi-Fi Hell or what?

 My point here again is all that I really wanted to do in the beginning was to play records, get it? What I should have done to save time and money, was to audition other phono preamps with a return policy. Even though I am relatively happy now, the price was too great. 

I continue to lean towards the ARC 3SE and have been offered a barely used trade in with about 60 hours on it. The photos look great and the store was recommended to me by someone I trust. 

Being new to tubes, I am not sure if it is better to buy new or to save a bit more than $3k. 

Thoughts?

 It isn't whether tubes, these or those, it is more about the implementation of the tubes. Price doesn't guarantee performance. But, considering your question, it would be good to know the truth for the sale of a used product. Instead, there are often catch phrases used to set you at ease of buying someone else's equipment.  Often times I will see-- "upgrading to new equipment", "I have too much equipment", "wife says sell", and my favorite, "going in a new direction." I certainly am not saying these are all tales to lead you on, but, is that the real reason for the sale?

 Lastly, when buying new or used, is there the option of return if you hate it? I wish that I had thought that through before wasting time and money. The power of impulse buying (even impulse from the past, "I have always wanted one of these) is great. Ok, now I'm done. Good luck.

Wouldn't buy used or new unless had a chance to listen first.