So I know since vinyl has had its resurgence, we're naturally seeing a host of snake oil claims about various accessories improving the sound of a turntable miraculously and "opening up the music" beyond what one would normally hear. From my standpoint, I can certainly see benefits to improved tonearms/cartridges/styli/platters/subplatters of the turntable itself (within reason). However, my question is about the phono stage. I don't see any engineering or scientific reason why one phono stage would outperform another from an audio standpoint, assuming that both are adequately powered and matched to the appropriate cartridge (I understand that MC cartridges often require more power than MM ones), but would you get any actual audio benefit from upgrading a phono stage? I have a ProJect S2 phono box, which cost about $150, driving a Rega P2 with a Grado Prestige Gold cartridge, but I constantly see people spending $750+ on phono stages, and my local dealer swears by their SimAudio 110 at $400. Am I missing something? Is this just like the lure of expensive cabling or is there a real reason why my vinyl will sound better with an upgraded stage?