Need some help picking my first MC Cartridge

@alvinnir2 I have my Denon DL-103 on my Technics SL-1200GR.  Even after I bought a fairly heavy Ortofon LH-4000 headshell to use it still didn't sound very special.  But a friend suggested I add weight to the headshell so I Blu-tacked a nickel on to it and it sounded much better.  So you are right the Denon probably isn't the best match for the Sansui arm but there are work arounds to increase the tonearm's effective mass to better match the cartridge.

Nobody’s going to mention Benz Micro Glider SL?

reviewing the unit’s specs, I see:

MC sensitivity 0.5mv

MC transformer X Factor: one choice: 10x

MC impedance: one choice: 100 ohms

MC gain 69db

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I see three options:

a. high output MC, use MM Input

b. Low Output MC: fairly strong 0.5mv output: find a cartridge that works with the above specs and is happy with 100 ohms impedance

c. Get a SUT with several optional x factors and optional impedance settings, then feed that into unit’s MM input. That gives much more flexibility now and in the future.

I think the OP ought to limit his choices to true low internal resistance LOMCs, if he’s going to use the built in SUT in the Icon phono, which seems like a very nice unit, now that I’ve read more about it. Thus a Denon DL103 or any of several Benz LOMC cartridges would not do, owing to the fixed 100 ohm input load. (I am guessing the MC inputs must connect across a 10K ohm resistor in order to achieve a fixed 100 ohm load using the built in 1:10 SUT.) This the case if one wants to adhere to the rule of thumb that the input R should be about 10X the out impedance of the cartridge. That doesn’t work here for the Denon, some of the Benz, and some other LOMCs. Also, most HOMCs and most low output MI types won’t work optimally into 100ohms owing either to high internal R or high inductance, respectively. 

I started with the Hana SL and now have the ML. Love it.