Valve phono stage

@atmasphere thanks for pointing the facts

as a disadvantages i can add:
Tube Microphonics, Tube Noise, Tube Rolling effect (you change the tube and you change the sound). The price for each good tube, the tube estimate hrs and short life of the tube (not good for very expensive nos).  

In general tube rollings is like cartridge loadings, people looking for "the right sounding" tubes expecting more bass or more lush etc and so on. 

manufacturers recommends 47-100kOhm sometimes 30-50kOhm for their MM cartridges. This is the reason i like MM phono stages with rca plugs (load resistors), alternate loading will change the sound if needed (smoother or brighter). 

Ok, so in your opinion: "smoother sound, less ticks and pops , reduced generation of higher ordered harmonics, good overload margins and good resistance to RFI (semiconductors more easily rectify Radio Frequency signals since they have diodes built into their structures)".

How many great tube phono stages available for less than $1k , not for $3k? Just curious.      

as a disadvantages i can add:
Tube Microphonics, Tube Noise, Tube Rolling effect (you change the tube and you change the sound). The price for each good tube, the tube estimate hrs and short life of the tube (not good for very expensive nos).  

This statement is quite true, but I should point out that in any high performance audio equipment, whether tube or solid state, the devices used have to be hand picked- you can't expect to just buy them off the shelf and have them work.
Some years back we experimented with semiconductors at the input of our MP-3 preamp. What we found was that regardless of the MOSFETs we tried, we had to hand pick them and out of 100 units, we found only about 7 that were quiet enough for use. In that regard we had an easier time hand-picking the tubes!

MM cartridges are of course a different animal as loading affects them directly, otherwise they can ring and cause distortion. The loading is usually a bit more complex- did you read the comments Jim made about them in the article I linked?

How many great tube phono stages available for less than $1k , not for $3k? Just curious.  

At least two that I know of- but that IMO is a loaded question. In the preamp I'm thinking of the phono section causes the preamp to cost about $400 more that it does as a line stage. In another example the phono section raises the cost of the preamp by about $800.00; so I think the answer is probably a lot like 'a bunch'.

Here is another one: http://www.decware.com/newsite/ZP3.htm

 Dear Chakster, there’s no reason for you to pay any attention to me, but it does seem that you are missing my point. So now you’ve described the particular tube amplifier that you found to be less good sounding then your 1st W amplifier. That proves nothing in general about tubes Vs solid state. That is my point. 

For all I know, you may end up preferring a solid-state phono stage to any tube phono stage that you can lay your hands on. That remains to be seen. But I do think you should give it a try.

If I go all out Herron system, as I mentioned, it would mean selling all my balanced cables. 
Can any of you suggest great single ended cables up to about  $700?

I'm looking at AntiCables...

Thanks 
Rich