Recommended phono stage to go with McIntosh

@knollbrent   "Famous Last Words"  Now listening to "Breakfast in America".  Earlier "Crime of the Century".   A Supertramp kind of day!
I bought the Luxman from Josh at Musicdirect.  Ordered the 180 gram 2 LP Parlophone version of Pink Floyd's "The Division Bell" yesterday after trying to be satisfied with the remastered CD.  They just mastered it too hot.  Too forward soundstage-wise with overemphasis in upper midrange.  Ugh.

When I had my MA8000 McIntosh integrated I paired it with their MP100 phono stage. It was a nice improvement over the built in phono stage in my integrated. I ended up swapping out to a Lehmann Decade and it’s honeslt a vast improvement over the MP100. When I eventually upgrade from the Decade, it will be to the Herron. Having heard it in my system it sounds wonderful.

Thanks @chachi112  for chiming in. I had heard the MP100 just wasnt going to great for the long run. I'll probably grab the Herron next month. I'm going to contact Herron first with my equipt list so they can advise. whether it's a good fit. 

@jerrym121 that seems like a lot of work for me to tackle? Great idea though thanks!

Another alternative that no one has mentioned: You could consider swapping your C2200 for a C2300. That gets you one of the very best MM and MC phono stages ever made. Good enough that it made Harry Pearson’s reference system for a year or so shortly after it was introduced. I thought it was simply excellent if not an ideal match for my lifestyle (moved to a C50 instead). It allows for on-th-fly load changes and is otherwise identical to the C2200. Well within your budget, too. You just might have to be a little patient for one to show up either here or through Audio Classics. Another +1 for A-C here, BTW.

If you want to combine a DAC into the box, you could also look at a C2500. That has the C50 DAC, which works just fine for my purposes although some don’t like the lack of DSD or all-in-one configuration. My 2 cents, anyway.

Good luck and happy listening!