Congratulations Dan!
I have owned many phono stages in my life, with the most expensive one costing three times the price of the PH 9.0. I sold it when I got a preamp that had an option for an internal phono stage. The internal phono stage was so close in performance that I decided I could sell the expensive external phono stage and be happy with my simplified setup.
When I read about your PH 9.0 I decided that I wanted try it in my system to see if it could surpass the performance of my internal phono stage. I figured if it was not noticeably better I would sell it and be satisfied with my internal phono stage.
In short, the PH 9.0 was more to my liking and stayed in my system. The tonal balance and musicality are spot on. As a matter of fact, (from audio memory) the PH 9.0 beats the performance of the expensive phono stage I sold.
The PH 9.0 deserves all of its accolades.
Greg