Moving from MM to MC

@bstatmeister - I’m not going to get into the MM/MC debate because we all have our own preferences, but if you want to get higher resolving sound, I would start by replacing your phono stage. Any of the Simmaudio Moon products will be a huge improvement over what you have.

The LP110 is a great place to start and will work with either MM or MC carts - so you can move forward from there
http://simaudio.com/en/product/110lp-phono-preamplifier/

See what it does for your sound first

I made the mistake of buying budget phono stages. When I got the Simmaudio MOON - it opened my eyes to what vinyl has to offer.

As for your arm - if you are interested - you might want to take a look at the Audiomods arms. They actually do a custom mount just for your turntable

http://www.audiomods.co.uk/technicsarm.html

The audiomods arm is a superb upgrade that you could aim for down the road.

AND don’t believe anyone that says putting the Audiomods arm on the 1200 is a foolish move - I have heard what the arm did for a friend with that very table and it is an excellent upgrade that brought the best out of the table.

In your shoes I would start the LP110 first - and only then, consider a cartridge upgrade.

Regards - Steve

@roberjerman 

Arm mass is NOT critical! Excellent results in both cases!

special for you: https://www.ortofon.com/support/support-hifi/resonance-frequency 

If a low compliance cartridge is used with a low mass tonearm, undesirable resonances can occur in the audible range. Mistracking may also be a problem.

When a high compliance cartridge is mated with a moderate mass tonearm, resonances in the infrasonic range may occur in addition to some unwanted high frequency damping.

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

Any Grado MI would be a good match for the 12 gram arm on the Technics table. Pick one within your budget and I think you would be happy!
https://www.needledoctor.com/analog/analog-components/Phono-Cartridges/brand/Grado-Labs

I was going to recommend a Grado as well. But, with the Grado's unshielded design, will it pick up hum from the Technics motor? Anybody with experience to answer this question?