Sorry that this might be a long and boring post! I have scoured through the many posts on Croft phono stages over the course of the last few weeks trying to get a feel for information on them. As I recently purchased my turntable, a project that has been somewhat put on hold due to money and time, research into these stages continue when I can. Hearing them in my system without purchase will be another hurdle. Keep in mind I am located in the US, and while there are a few Croft dealers, I doubt any have the try before you buy, unfortunately. Some of the other stages noted below in my post, I can get some home time with them, but having owned Croft Micro 25 and Series 7 amps in the past, I do find his products very musical and decent values even here across the pond.

So, in terms of sonic attributes, and I know this is all subjective as well as system dependent, what are the differences in the base phono stage, then to the “R” version? I should also note that my cartridge for time being is the lowly but solid performer, Nagaoka MP110, which at some point way down the road will be upgraded. But for now....

As another twist, looking at the Croft Micro 25 phono stage, and that of the 25R, what again are those differences in the in built phono stages? How do these compare or overlap to the phono stages alone noted above?

I realize probably no one has heard any of my components save maybe the Innuos Zen, so putting things into system context may be a real miss, and I get that. I am looking at other phono stages as well, I did have the Lehmann Decade on the hook listed in my equipment, but in a strange twist, things fell through for it, I should remove it, but it is still one that is in the potential mix as I have had a bit of experience with it some time ago. Other possibilities are Audiomat 1.7, Audio Hungary/Qualiton stage, and another outsider, the Encore 7 PS5.

While price is a concern, I am just feeling through some of this, and a couple of these stages I can buy at demo pricing, so roughly 2K US dollars as a rough guide possibly. I appreciate any thoughts here! Thanks for your time!

Tim