Reasonably priced 2K Phono Preamp?

I suggest an Audible Illusions Modulus 3, then add NOS tubes(Seimens are working great for me). Excellent phono stage. Very good all around performance. Tough to beat for the money -- well under your budget even with premium NOS tubes.

Kublakhan -- compared to the SE version, the standard was dry and uninvolving. It was correct, top to bottom, and seemed to resolve most of information on the record, but it had little emotion. The SE version is warmer, and, due in part to its increased midbase punch, seems more dynamic. It brings fun and emotion to listening, without sacrificing the standard's resolving ability, soundstage and top-to-bottom coherence.

Hope that helps.

Anybody with any experience with the BAT VK P10 ?. I've heard that the Aesthetix IO's have been having reliability problems. I could go up a little and get either one used.
David

I listened to BAT vk p10 versus an Aesthetix at the Analog Room in San Jose. (I own an Aesthetix Io) I thought it sounded better in every way. The Aesthetix design is very full out attack on making the best phono source and it's complex (many tubes and parts) design with regulation at every stage. A solid point for the stability of the design is that it hasn't been rev'd often. Lots of rev's show an unstable design or greedy manufacturers. The sound is fantastic, but plain physics involved with having more parts = more failures. BTW: I have only re-place a couple of noisey tubes and some fuses (because I'm using two PS and KT-66s -thanks Albert) in three years. Better reliability than I might have expected actually, but not for the timid.