If you're in love with your Mac preamp do this:
Forget step up transformers. There are at least 6 to 8 other analog nuts I know of here on AgoN who will tell you the same thing, and for the same reason (which I'm not going into here, sorry.) Also, don't bother getting a low to medium output MC cartridge which will require a separate phono preamp -- primarily because your budget isn't emough to do justice to either one.
The sensible thing to do would be to get a high output MC cartridge that you can use right into your Mac. Many well-respected manufacturers of MC cartridges make high output versions. Either a van den Hul TWO or HO Frog would be excellent choices, and would only require you add appropriate loading resistors to the Mac phono preamp section to bring down the 47Kohm default phono input impedance (which is meant for MM cartridges) -- I'm sure there's a place on the circuit board to do that, or a tech can do it for you.
You'd be keeping it simple, optimize your TA and TT without overkill, and going directly into a really good phono section in your Mac. That's what I think.
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Forget step up transformers. There are at least 6 to 8 other analog nuts I know of here on AgoN who will tell you the same thing, and for the same reason (which I'm not going into here, sorry.) Also, don't bother getting a low to medium output MC cartridge which will require a separate phono preamp -- primarily because your budget isn't emough to do justice to either one.
The sensible thing to do would be to get a high output MC cartridge that you can use right into your Mac. Many well-respected manufacturers of MC cartridges make high output versions. Either a van den Hul TWO or HO Frog would be excellent choices, and would only require you add appropriate loading resistors to the Mac phono preamp section to bring down the 47Kohm default phono input impedance (which is meant for MM cartridges) -- I'm sure there's a place on the circuit board to do that, or a tech can do it for you.
You'd be keeping it simple, optimize your TA and TT without overkill, and going directly into a really good phono section in your Mac. That's what I think.
.