> I need a preamp, ... I may need a simple eq as well, as i don't feel like adjusting the receiver every time I feel like vinyl.
??? You get a phono preamp. You shouldn't need to re-EQ, or not more than the sloppy balance on some old phonograms demands.
> hopefully simple and clean
It is possible to make a very-very good phone preamp, simple and cheap.
Nobody does.
TAA/AudioXpress reviewed a pile of low-price phono preamps a few years back. With one exception, they were all awful. Terrible EQ accuracy, gain too low or too high, bla-bla. One caused the power amplifier to shut-down, which they blamed on RF oscillation.
It happened that I'd bought that exact model preamp the week before the review came out. And indeed, when I set the system volume control so an average piano recording played through ordinary speakers reproduced at realistic level (this is a piano studio so I could tell what was "realistic"), the amp shut-down.
It was actually subsonic random noise. So bad, I could see the needle waggle on my VTVM set for 1.5VDC. The amplifier thought it was DC and was going to blow the speaker. It wouldn't, but the protection didn't know it was random noise instead of a problem getting worse.
The ONE good low-cost preamp in the review was Hagerman's battery-power kit. While I would not do a phono preamp that way, it is absolutely right-on for noise, EQ, distortion, output. And I've used 8V-battery-power preamps: it really isn't a pain keeping them fed. A preamp draws very little power, and in normal record-playing the batteries last months.
The little tanks that Radio Shack sold for decades were all awful. Someone still sells them, may be Parts Express.
Those Shure boxes were barely acceptable for listening-lab duty.
PAT2/3, PAT4 suck bad. Marginal EQ accuracy, horrendous subsonic instability.
Two transistors is NOT enough.
PAT5 is not bad, not as cheap as it used to be. More than you need.
If you want to play records, just get the Hagerman kit.
If you want to putz around a little, I like 5532 with RIAA feedback. There are tradeoffs with feedback RIAA EQ, but no real problem.
The absolute best phono preamp I ever used was modded from a very old TAA project, three transistors and an enormous emitter cap. That was a lot of putzing around.