I'm not sure if anyone ever offered some suggestions to you. I know tis is an old thread, so maybe it is a moot point, but...

I purchased a Rolls Bellari VP129 tube phono preamp and love it. It uses a single 12AX7. You can pick them up online for around $300. Nice tubey sounding midrange for not a whole lot of bucks. Great reviews from the audio geeks as well. The only limitation is you cannot use a low output moving coil, as it does not have tremendous gain.