Honestly I was looking for cheap not high performance as I don't have too many records and those are pretty beat up. Having said that I was surpised at the performance of the cheapy approach. I have a Technics SL-J2 linear tracking turntable with a cheapy Amazon needle as my good old Pickering needle was trashed.

My next step will be to ground the inputs and characterize the A/D converter noise (because I'm a nerd). I'll really be suprised if there isn't a couple bits of noise injected by the unit.