Help with phono amp upgrade

Forgot to mention speakers....
coincident conquest floorstanding speakers... they are older Canadian made speakers - very efficient and sound great with the Mesa....

You can get an old Audio Research PH3-SE for well under a grand, a stage it will be a huge step up and awfully hard to beat for anything around that price.

 

Thanks, I’ll check it out. Not in a rush, so any other input is appreciated....
getting a new  ifi 2 seems reasonable, but looking for better... thx

Just received a new phono stage for my headphone set up that I use in my home office in which I just added a turntable to, an Aural Thrills Serenade tube phono stage hand built in the Dallas Texas area for $900.00, it is MM and MC with loading options. The first 2 hours were brutal but after that it opened up and I am very impressed, I have tried before to satisfy this price point with Jolida, used AR 3 and to many others to mention. Let me tell you something with 8 hours on this thing it is a keeper. I run an Allnic H1500 se II in my big system and have lived with the Herron,very briefly, Chinook, JC3 Parasound, Audible Illusions MB3 with the JC phono boards Allnic H1201 and others before settling on the Allnic H1500 so I have sampled some very good phono stages. After I get a few hundred hours on this ATA Serenade I will give my final impressions but if you are spending $900.00-$1,000.00 you have to give this thing a look, it is one of those sleeper deals. Good luck and happy listening

Why don’t you just try another cartridge if the sound of Hanna is harsh to your ears ? This is a nature of MC. Find a better cartridge, probably MM or MI type. The sound goes from the cartridge.