Trying vinyl, need some help!

Why not just stay with MM phono stage, but upgraded it to 100k Ohm with Vishay naked Foil Resistors? You can use some of the best MM cartridge with your phono stage without any needs for an MC and MC phono stage. Loaded your MM cartridge with 100k Ohm you will get an amazing sound quality compared to standard 47k Ohm. The cost of this upgrade is nothing. Those resistors available from Texas Components (USA) on ebay. This is the best resistors for audio available today. Highly recommended! 

BTW with your budget you can buy some killer MM from the 70s/80s era, something like AT20SLa or Grace F9

This Grado Sonata would be a perfect match with that tonearm with the mass of the arm of 11 grams!

Thanks for the suggestion. Taking a closer look at the Grado

Loaded your MM cartridge with 100k Ohm you will get an amazing sound quality compared to standard 47k Ohm.

Seems there is a lot more to learn about vinyl than just buyin a record and playing it.

@drf24 you can pay less to get much better quality if you will look for MM/MI cartridges made on peak of the MM boom (in the 70s). This is one of them with nude Shibata stylus tip.

Yes, the 100k Ohm option will open up the potential of almost any MM/MI cartridge, simply locate 47k Ohm resistors inside your phono stage and replace them with Vishay 100k Ohm resistors, it will take 15 minutes. Thanks to Raul and Lewm for this advice. 

There you go (you need two, select 100k ohm value): https://www.ebay.com/itm/Texas-Components-TX2575-Naked-Foil-Audio-Resistor-at-0-1-or-better-TX2352-v... 

@chakster Thanks again, ordering a set of the 100k right now. The SP-4 has 3 phono inputs, mine doesn't have the head amp option installed though. I can change one of the inputs to 100k and leave the other alone.
Found a few AT20SLa on ebay.
Thanks again for the info, very much appreciated!

The Dynavector 10X5 High output MC $650! This is the best $650 cartridge you can buy imo. This will work very well with your MM phonostage. The dynavector sounds very lively and dynamic, itll make you want to stand up and dance or at least tap your foot!


Matt M