Question Three phono stage, which one ?

[Entrigo]

Good morning TT lovers,
I am so lost in the wide offer I have decided to save 1K.
Several testings have been done at home and I grateful for my contacts met throughout forums for organizing test sessions at home. We are inviting each other : some snacks, some drinks, some LP…

I welcomed a mate Sunday afternoon with a phono rega MK5. No improvement compared to my optional phono board. Not a bad sound at all. Details, soundstage and so on but not better than the phono board.

We swapped cables (his own cables and mine) but the results were not night and day. Another color but not better.

I never tried a super high end phono preamp on my set up. For the moment I am enjoying music with a good saving in my pocket before end of the year celebrations.

That is the same result I got when I tested the Rega Fono MK5. Nice but not such a marked improvement over the Technics SL1500C built-in one.

The Simaudio Moon 110LP I landed on shortly after was better by quite some margin.