Bloody phono stages

When it comes to decks, arm and cartridges, the majority of people have the same consensus regarding quality of the sound. Mention a phono stage and it's feeding time in the pirahna tank.
In the dino/slee/ear debate, one is the best thing since sliced toast and the other is the slice of toast that has fallen butter side down down into a labrador's steamer. Along comes the next ameteur reviewer and he's scooping it off the floor and eating it with extra plum jam(?). Are they so markedly different or is it a matching issue?
I know there's personal taste but if you want to buy second hand you don't often have the luxury of demos.
And....reading an oldish copy of Hifi Choice (my friend knows the editor and said he's almost deaf, amongst other things) and they had a phono test and rated a wooden moth and electrocomianet stage very well. These don't crop up here very often. Any thoughts. Here goes the daphne...

 

Hi Pixies
IMHO you are correct when it comes to system synergy, some stages take different approaches, and one of the considerations is whether you wish to use MM or MC, as some manufacturers save £'s on the MM stage to create a good MC input. You do tend to get what you pay for and they will have strengths and weaknesses , gain levels are a consideration depending on amp / spker combo as it will invariably be a lower output than cd.

once you are decided or know the cart / output etc then you can start narrowing down the list.

 

I would start with price. What you can afford/what you are willing to pay. If you have decent deler near you then they should be able to give you some kind of dem.

Most importantly though I would try them in your own system first.