If you look up Audiogon username "Grooves", you can email Michael directly and ask him yourself. He has liked many sub-$1K phonostages in his ongoing survey, but he usually qualifies budget raves by lavishing his praise on certain sonic areas, while still reserving overall superiority for the more expensive units like his reference Manley Steelhead (though to his credit he doesn't slavishly adhere to a strict price/performance heirarchy). Since it's tough to meaningfully audition phonostages, I myself took Mr. Fremer's advice and bought the battery-powered Camelot Lancelot, at the time one of his top budget recommendations, and have been very pleased (it's even better, BTW, if you upgrade the socketed loading and gain resistors to premium Vishays). But how it might compare to some of the models he's liked since then, who can know for sure? There's so many phonostages on the market now that even Mikey, who probably listens to more of 'em under relatively controlled conditions than anybody, has alluded in his column to the fact that it's basically impossible to keep them all 'ranked' with any certainty (and then there's always the variable of personal preference). Maybe if the dealers could see fit to make it possible for audiophiles to comparatively audition cartridges and phonostages, then maybe we wouldn't need Fremer to be such a guru, but in the metropolis where I live, I couldn't get anywhere pursuing that particular dream when I was trying to shop.
