To be honest...
There is no point making your own phono preamp - unless you enjoy building it yourself. If that is not the case - you can buy a very decent, brand-new, genuine product for 100-200 € today. My exploration began out of curiosity and ended with exactly this conclusion: if you need the cleanest possible phono preamp, it should be built as simply as possible. There’s really no need to reinvent the wheel here.
I’ve tried more than one method for implementing an RIAA equalizer/preamp. I built clones of tube designs like the "Shure M-65" and "EAR 834P," as well as a circuit using two transistors with a passive equalizer between them (Class-A), but in the end I settled on the simplest solution - an op-amp amplifier with negative feedback RIAA equalization.
I remind you: I leave all the tube magic to my preamp - all other components must be "clean".
This is a slightly modified schematic from "Texas Instruments" technical literature. The gain has been increased by a few dB and the equalizer curve itself has been refined. There’s no magic in it - in fact, I simply needed a phono preamp that would do its job well enough and look just like my other products.
My Phono/RIAA Preamp Features:
Dimensions:
