[prepress]

I have reached a point where I am contemplating what I expect to be my last audio purchase; finances will not allow anything major before too long and retirement is beckoning in a year, maybe two. I thought I'd solicit opinions or perspectives on this.

I have an Audio Research LS3, in its box in a closet and unused since 2013. The LS3 is supposed to be my back-up if my C2300 went down. What occurred to me is that if the 2300 does go down or I decide to get rid of it, I wouldn't be able to play records since the LS3 is a line stage preamp, and if I want to maintain a complete system I should revisit the idea of a phono preamp. I abandoned the idea at the beginning of the year but it's come back to me now.

My concern is that if I do go for a phono preamp, it would need to be something that would go with the rest of my system and not overpower it (i.e., be noticeably better than everything else), but be comparable or only slightly better. For perspective, here is the actual gear in addition to the C2300:

SOTA Sapphire VI turntable
SME 309 tonearm
Grado Timbre Sonata3 cartridge
McIntosh MCD500 SACD/CD player
McIntosh MC501 monos
Pioneer Elite 09FD/88FD Blu-ray
Pioneer Elite DVL-91 combi-player (I have some laserdiscs still)
Mirage M-3si speakers
Transparent Super IC
Transparent Plus speaker cable
Transparent Premium PC
Shunyata Venom V10 NR PCs

I have been looking at the Parasound JC3 Jr phono preamp once again, thinking it would be about right for what I have. At an MSRP of $1699 it's probably about as far as I dare go, as this is going to be an expensive year already, what with needing new glasses, a new mattress, and the usual trip to my sister's in Texas (especially important since she lost her husband 3 months back), plus a possible trip to DC to visit a friend. In fact, I may not be able to do all of these things this year.

But back to the phono pre, I was wondering what, given the gear I listed, the AA community thinks would be comparable to my current gear. Given my current finances, I took the JC3+ off the table due primarily to its greater price and not knowing how much better than the JC3 Jr it is. Comments welcome, and thanks.