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Preamp suggestion- budget minded

Hey Warmseth.. You might want to look into the Talk about Stanton 500's around here..They seem to have Quite a Following..
And, that Miida looks Cool...I've never seen One till now, but it looks like a CEC Pioneer/ Marantz mix...
 
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^apparently it's nearly identical to the denon gt700 save for a slightly better motor and some other minor internal differences.
Against hypno's good advice the seller of the TT also had a set of beautiful warfedale w60s from 1962 that he'd rebuilt the crossovers on. They sounded fantastic and look beautiful so I bought them while I was there...one stop shopping is nice. ;) the speakers are great for mid and crispy high end audio lacking a bit of bass but as most of what I listen to is jazz, classical and punk (nutty right?) bass is not a major concern.
 
The 500 has a Full Bodied sound, a solid Rock n' Roll Cart...A lot depends on which Stylus you use on it...I hear that the Shure is more Analytical. You'll find all the opinions of each of them that you'll need on this Forum..
 
Well, this thread prompted me to order an AT PEQ3 from Needle Doctor. Same price as LPgear but enter the coupon code SAVE10 to get $4 off. Also use US Mail instead of the default, which is UPS and much more expensive.

It arrived today so I've just plugged it in to my work system (Dual 1228 w/ AT92E, Kenwood KR-7600, Boston Acoustics A70 speakers) and it sounds good!

Definitely worth grabbing one of these at the $44 price. I'm willing to wager they will hold their value or even go up after the remaining stock dries up.
 
Arrrh...Where did that Coupon Code come from?...I've been 'Burning In' the one that I bought for a friend from Mon to Wed, and it sounded Really Nice...He's been listening to it since Wed, and says that it's So Much better then the starter 'Black Box' that he had..Well, I knew that from the Start...Which, it is nice to know that you can recommend something like this to a Non-AKer and even they can hear the difference.

And, I've just checked...It looks like Needle Doctor is the way to go..I used LP Gear, and they wanted $3.00 more for shipping and no Coupon Code..$54.73 UPS..Which they seem to have Drove from CA.to NJ.
 
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I would recommend anybody looking for a budget phono stage to try the ART. I tried a bunch of "budget high end" phono stages awhile back and I think the ART sounds more balanced and has better bass weight than most of them. I actually prefer the ART over my Jolida JD-9A (a touch more detail and "presence"). I preferred the Jolida over all the other phono stages I tried. Only downside is no moving coil capability...

http://www.amazon.com/ART-Pre-II-Phono-Preamp/dp/B000AJR482/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1305867729&sr=8-2
 
If you are handy with a soldering iron you could build a Elliot Sound P06 phono stage and run it on batteries for around $80.00. It beats out a lot of those costing many times more IMO.

No affiliation.
 
I tried several phono-preamps, but needed more gain than most offered.
I decided to go with this Art Audio unit from Parts Express for around $50.00
It's built well and has both variable level and switchable capacitance and it sounds great!

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Here's an inside shot of the PCB.

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Just picked up a TCC TC-760LC Moving Magnet/Moving Coil Phono Preamp. Happy with it so far. Very flexible in terms of cartridge types and price is great at $75.
 
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