I live in Southern Spain and the nearest Hi Fi shop is 100Km away so I've found a shop in Berlin, Germany who seems really helpful (I'm travelling to berlin later this year anyway). I have assumed that he will know the technical side of things and will provide me with 3 or 4 decent options based on my preferred sound characteristics.
This is their website for anyone who may be interested what they can offer. My question was to try to understand what his options will give me. http://www.phonophono.de/
I think you have got it absolutely right Mechans, Whilst I have an interest in the technicalities and effect of component change, I really just want to listen to my favourite music without worrying about how to squeeze the smallest difference/improvement out of it. I also don't have the money or storage space (or understanding wife for that matter)to be constantly changing components.
The reason my list is so exhaustive is that my phono amp will run MM, low output MC and High output MC so my choice really is unrestricted.Also, given that I've only previously had MM's, I thought I might try a MC, and possibly a low output as I believe from the research I've done they seem to be slightly more. However, I am open to whatever sound best on the turntable.