Sorry to hear you got caught in the deluge, Sweet Spot.

I just had one more thing to add regarding your original question in light of Tru Blu's mention of his tube buffer.

Changing the phono stage can make a difference in your set up, particularly if you moved to a tube phono stage. You also have the option of tube rolling, which gives you the ability to tweak the sound to your liking.

For example, I'm using the Rolls Bellari VP-129 and am quite happy with it and have experimented with various 12AX7s and equivalents. It is, however, not intended for low output moving coils, so it would liikely force you into a step-up transformer when you get the DL-103.