>> I use 2N4401 and 2N4403's. Cheap and cheerful.
> ...and VERY low noise! Even more so than "low noise" types.
Low noise in low-impedance circuits.
And many audio circuits are low-Z enough to use 2N440x.
When you really have a hi-Z circuit, like the wiper of a 1Meg volume pot, the smaller high-Beta transistors will give slightly lower noise. Most of thos "lo-noise" parts got the designation 30 years ago, when hi-Z circuits were a real problem for transistors. AFAICT, around 1K there was never much of a problem, not after we got clean Silicon in the late 1960s.
Phono cartridges (moving magnet) are sorta in-between. They are under 1K over much of the audio band, but will peak up to 3K to 30K at the top of the band. Good phono preamps have been built with both types of devices. Same seems to be true for guitar inputs and mike-transformer inputs.