thanks for the input from all who offered it. after reading many many online reviews and taking other considerations into account, i ended up ordering a pro-ject debut carbon evo. it arrived the day before i finished the build on the reduction. i've been playing vinyl the last few days after a lapse of almost 30 years. pro-ject switched from ortofon to sumiko cartridges; it sounds very nice, but i've got little to compare it with aside from cds, which sound pretty good through the all-bottlehead rig. i'll almost certainly end up adding the integration; despite the rainier cartridges 5 mV output, i need more volume!