Moving from MM to MC

Point taken. So, in order to realize the true benefit of MC, much more needs to be spent on the cart to ensure adequate quality? And if this is not possible may not be worth the time and money on a lower-end set-up.
My issue is that I do not have a lot of money to play with but I do want to fool around with MC. Tough pill to swallow.

You have to read Raul’s thread , so much information about MM vs. MC. In my opinion it is much more important to have a proper MM/MI on hands, those MM/MI cartridges are always cheaper than LOMC cartridges, but the quality of the selected (very best) MM/MI is outstanding for the money. It is not for those who’s afraid to buy vintage (lightly used or NOS) cartridges from the 70s/80s. They are the best in its class, Moving Magnet peak was at that time, not now. I did everything wrong myself some year ago, so my advice is not to buy cheap MC or even very expensive MC if you don’t have a decent MM cartridge. My curiosity was so high 4-5 years ago than i bought a very expensive new LOMC (i was brainwashed by the common statment that MC are always better than MM), later on i have discovered so many amazing MM cartridges (better than my ex super expensive $3k LOMC). The quest with the right phono stage for the LOMS is also very difficult and expensive. But it’s all a part of the hobby.

Start with the right MM or MI, something that’s have been approved in our community, the Ortofon M20FL Super is one of them and actually still very cheap ($250-350 depends on condition), if you prepared to spend $500-800 there must be a much better MM cartridges, everyone knows that my love is AT-ML170 and Victor X-1II for example. You need a mid compliance cartridges for your Technics tonearm, definitely not low compliance carts.

About the DENON:
There was an MM alternative to the DL-103 - another broadcast cartridge designed for NHK radiostation in the same era! It's Denon DL-107 with conical tip. This is also Denon stock sound, but you don’t have to worry about expensive SUT or MC phono stage with high gain. The DL-107 is Moving Magnet alternative to the DL-103 LOMC. On the DL-107 the replacement stylus is screwed to the cartridge like on Signet or ADC TRX carts - this is great (i have a few NOS styli).

I agree your next move should be to a good MM/MI cart. There will be a great improvement in SQ over your budget Shure cart.
Keep in mind that MC is very revealing of not only the music on the vinyl, but will reveal any flaws plus noise from your phonostage. If the cart/tonearm  is not accurately set up, the sound quality will suffer. That is why a good MC setup is expensive. You would need to spend considerably more on a phonostage than the unit you selected. The quality of the power supply is also important to achieve higher-end sonics.

I agree your next move should be to a good MM/MI cart. There will be a great improvement in SQ over your budget Shure cart.
Keep in mind that MC is very revealing of not only the music on the vinyl, but will reveal any flaws plus noise from your phonostage. If the cart/tonearm  is not accurately set up, the sound quality will suffer. That is why a good MC setup is expensive. You would need to spend considerably more on a phonostage than the unit you selected. The quality of the power supply is also important to achieve higher-end sonics.

This is what I was fearing - That it just might not be possible to get better sound than what I currently have simply by swapping out a couple relatively inexpensive parts. My hope is that I could spend ~$300 (Denon DL-103 + TC-760) to take my next big leap in sound quality, but it might not be possible at my current budget (and from what I'm hearing could actually be worse). This saddens me. 

@bstatmeister

This is what I was fearing - That it just might not be possible to get better sound than what I currently have

You will definitely get a better sound with a better MM cartridge. I have the same turntables (they are not my main turntables) and i’ve tried various MM cartridges on that stock Technics tonearm, but my arm has fluid damper and turntable was rewired, also added isonoe footers. Anyway, you don’t have to worry about it, the better cartridge has a better sound - that’s it! Pretty simple, everything starts from the cartridge. The rest you can upgrade later on step by step, but you need a decent cartridge matched to your tonearm. I told you about a guy who just swapped same Shure to a much better Ortofon M20FL Super with Nude Fine Line stylus. It was a very big improvement on the stock Technics with stock wiring etc. The cartridge is the most important thing in the analog chain in my opinion. You can change everything (cables, phono stage, speakers), but if you can’t get the information from the groove walls you will not be able to improve it by anything else. Read about different profiles of the diamond (stylus) and you will find that the best is FineLine (or Line Contact).

Conical profile of DL-103 is a nonsense, that’s the cheapest profile with rolled off bass and treble compared to FineLine or LineContact. That’s why people love to re-tip that stock Denon when they are looking for improvement. It is not the cartridge for your system, especially for your tonearm and phono stage. Forget about it! It’s a waste of money and time. It's oldschool rolled off sound for horn speakers, idler drive turntables and heavy tonearms like Thomas Schick "12.   

Wow a lot of variables to consider, turntable/arm, phono stages and the such but once you make the switch you will notice more realism to the music there is more of if thicker, darker, moodier. I switched from an ADC XLM II and a Grace F9R in 1978 to a GAS Sleeping Beauty and have never looked back, for very long, still have a SS rebuilt Grace F9R on another arm wand that I enjoy from time to time. There are folks here on Audiogon that marvel at their MM and I am sure they can make a case.