Thanks for the feedback guys. After all the input I think I may have been swayed into buying a better MM cart (than the Shure m97xe) rather than trying to find a cheap way of doing MC without overhauling the rest of my system. After doing some research I think that Cartridge man Music Maker III looks like a great long term goal (1k is just too much for a cart right now). Now I am looking at MM/MI carts in the 300-500 dollar range. On which one would be the best for me might be a crap shoot, since nothing is a stand-out based off of my research in that price range. So I ain't got the warm and fuzzies at this point (I do for the music maker though...sigh...)
(alternatively everywhere I look between 3-5 hundred it is always the Denon DL-103R as the winner - but again, it's moving coil)
Any clear stand-outs that I could buy NEW (I do not like the idea of used for a cart) as either an MM or MI you can think of?
As for phono stage, I was looking at the emotiva, looks like impressive specs for only $200. Any thoughts on this? SN ratio is significantly better than what I have now:
https://emotiva.com/products/xps-1
(alternatively everywhere I look between 3-5 hundred it is always the Denon DL-103R as the winner - but again, it's moving coil)
Any clear stand-outs that I could buy NEW (I do not like the idea of used for a cart) as either an MM or MI you can think of?
As for phono stage, I was looking at the emotiva, looks like impressive specs for only $200. Any thoughts on this? SN ratio is significantly better than what I have now:
https://emotiva.com/products/xps-1