New Member and obvious phono stage dilemmas

That's such a great learning curve and I'm happy you are sharing it with me!

I'm in the middle of my journey and as you, all my components apart from perhaps the interconnections, are all second hand scores from various sources. It is the only way I can afford gear I am happy to listen to and that gives me the sound I like, but as you say, before getting here I made a lot of side steps, I moved backwards a few times especially when it came down to get some speakers (until my current ones, I went through I believe other 4 or 5 in less than two years) and I'm always trying to have a certain balance between the components.

Also as much as a gear head I am, I still like to spend more money into music than gear.

Buying second hand has allowed me to try a few different things and understand what I like in terms of sound reproduction at small incremental investment steps. Buy one second hand pair of speakers, try it for few months, pass it on for pretty much what I bought it for and get something else slightly more expensive. I have also moved on from stuff which I really liked though and lost money in the process as well, plus my system until now is been a constant whirlwind of gear.

I can happily say I'm far from being done though, I'm at my first MC cartridge (High output) and I have a MI on its way to me which is something I've always wanted to try too.

And I agree, if there is something which makes sense upgrading for something far better, rather than settling on something of lesser quality I'd rather save up and go for the better component.

That's why I think I will take advantage of the loaner program. 

Nothing to lose and a lot to be learnt!