Best Phone Stage for under $1,000.000

Another vote for the Jd9.  Out of The box it’s pretty good; with great tubes (brimar), modified caps and op amps... way above what you’d expect at the price point.   A bit much on the gain, so a quality attenuator helps a lot.

So there ya have it. 25 responses, and almost as many choices.

I haven’t heard a word about it, but worth looking into is Frank Van Alstine’s $599 stand-alone phono amp. Alstine’s an excellent designer, one who took a look at the ARC SP-3, found what he considered correctable flaws, and came up with cures for that pre’s RIAA inaccuracy, non-linearity, and power supply weakness.

Yep, Frank is da man. 

The OP asked a legit Q (without obvious typos), yet folks offer no substantive advice other than poke fun at his title. Some might consider posting something useful to the OP.

In fairness, the OP should specify what he means about “best” and the expected service needs for cartridges (MM, MC or MI?; output voltage needs?).