Define "Reasonably priced"?
The Koetsu Black is a really good cartridge, especially if getting great sounding vocals is your prime objective. I owned one for a year or so, before upgrading to the Rosewood Signature, (which has a bit better frequency extension, especially in the treble response). Anyway, I used an ARC PH-3 with mine and it worked very well. Used they can be had for about $700 or so.
The PH-3 had a bit of very low level tube hiss, but not too much, and it was nicely musical. It had just enough gain (54 db, as I recall), for the cartridge. But I would make sure that whatever phono stage you pick that it have at least that amount of gain, as it is a somewhat low output MC cartridge, (and preferably 60 db, to provide a bit of head room). FYI: From the reviews and measurements that I've read about, while Koetsu listed the Black as having a 0.60 mv output, it typically measures more like 0.45 mv output, (hence the reason for needing 55-60 db of gain.)
Good Luck in your search.
PS I would also not recommend getting a phono stage that was too "tubey" sounding, as the Koetsu is lush enough in the mid-range without it. (And too much of a good thing is just that, too much, IMHO.)
The Koetsu Black is a really good cartridge, especially if getting great sounding vocals is your prime objective. I owned one for a year or so, before upgrading to the Rosewood Signature, (which has a bit better frequency extension, especially in the treble response). Anyway, I used an ARC PH-3 with mine and it worked very well. Used they can be had for about $700 or so.
The PH-3 had a bit of very low level tube hiss, but not too much, and it was nicely musical. It had just enough gain (54 db, as I recall), for the cartridge. But I would make sure that whatever phono stage you pick that it have at least that amount of gain, as it is a somewhat low output MC cartridge, (and preferably 60 db, to provide a bit of head room). FYI: From the reviews and measurements that I've read about, while Koetsu listed the Black as having a 0.60 mv output, it typically measures more like 0.45 mv output, (hence the reason for needing 55-60 db of gain.)
Good Luck in your search.
PS I would also not recommend getting a phono stage that was too "tubey" sounding, as the Koetsu is lush enough in the mid-range without it. (And too much of a good thing is just that, too much, IMHO.)