Sure, but only if it suits your use case and you understand the linear relationship between phono preamp price and performance.

There is enormous variation among phono preamplifiers. Cheap phono preamps really only serve one purpose and that is to add vinyl playback to affordable systems that don’t already have it. If this is your use-case and you don’t mind the very average performance guaranteed by cheap phono preamplifiers, then get one.

BUT – that use case does not reflect most vinyl lovers. If you DO care about the sonic results, if you love the high resolution sounds possible with vinyl, cheap phono preamps are simply not an option. They tend to sound coarse, grainy, noisy, thin, unrefined, veiled, lack dynamics and possess narrow soundstages and poor imaging.

What constitutes ‘cheap’? For me, anything under $300 is not worth buying, and under $1000 for a new phono preamplifier is cheap and should be approached with caution. Between $1K and $3K, things improve, and continue to as the price goes up. Avoid anything with Prolink, Beringer, Pyle, etc on it, unless you want a steaming pyle of sh… sorry!

Pre-owned equipment gets you orders of magnitude better value, of course. $1000 pre-owned will almost get you a $7000 AD-290, below. You’ll still need a rather more expensive Accuphase preamplifier to run it in, however…

There are good reasons why the best phono preamps are expensive. The quality of parts used in the best phono preamplifiers, engineering and execution are extraordinary, and they need to be, given the extraordinarily small signals and high gain requirements. OK, I know you want to see inside…

Here’s a look at a later Accuphase AD-2820, courtesy of one of my customers, from around 2011:

Wanna see an even better phono preamp? Try the new Accuphase C-57: