LCR phono stages - opinion

[Firebottle]

Yes a 5 uF or thereabouts. However the network is a low impedance so has to be used in a circuit with sufficient 'drive' that negates any problem of a large C value.
As Steve is implying it's 'horses for courses' with the design choices.

[pure sound]

Certainly easier to drive a 600R network with solid state or use a higher impedance network if a valve stage will be driving it.

[IslandPink]

I was at Euro Triode Fest in 2005 and heard about 25 phono stages in the shoot-out. At the end I think there were 4 LCR phonos and Allen Wright's differential ( balanced ) RC-based phono in the final selection. All of the LCR phonos had a special sort of integration between bass and mids in terms of tone and dynamics which wasn't apparent in any RC RIAA stage apart from Allen's. You can hear that in Lurcher's unit as well. It's to do with how the first driver stage is loaded by the RIAA and how it affects phase. I have all the bits to build a phono something like Nick's using 1.5k units from Dave Slagle, but have got somewhat bogged-down in speakers (