What separate tube phono stage do you use ?

rsf507, I see, Nicosia is a divided city but a very old city, a lot of history there.
Many apparently great tube phono stages. I would almost certainly be buying used and not very soon. I am in fact trying to figure out what my totally new system should be, so this is not about upgrade in a usual sense.
This phono stage should hopefully last me for at least ten years, and $1k-$2k more or less for it would make no difference to me under the 

By the way, XLR ouput would be a plus because I am going to make recordings to reel to reel tape deck, and the good ones come only with XLR ins/outs.

I used the BAT VK-P10, P-10SE, and P-10SE with bat pack. Balanced XLR in and out, very quiet (think SS quiet). lots of loadng options.
They now have a new line the 12 series. Costly, but worth every penny.
Www.balanced.com

I have the Allnic 7000 and am quite satisfied with it. I doubt that you can do better. A very flexible phono stage. The build quality is superb. 

By the way, XLR ouput would be a plus because I am going to make recordings to reel to reel tape deck, and the good ones come only with XLR ins/outs.

@inna

If you are going to drive your tape machine XLR inputs, you are going to need more guts! There isn't a single 'high end audio' phono preamp that can drive them directly (without bass loss and increased distortion)!

You'll need a line stage that is designed to support the balanced standard or at the very least, a line transformer to go from the phono stage to the line level of the XLR input.

We did solve the transformer issue some years ago BTW...