Dear Route30: For a starting analog source person you need not only advise from other people but some one that ( locally ) could help to " interpret " in the right way all the advise you can get on this and other forums.
IMHO a best " road " could be that you start/use a MM/MI cartridge where at least you don't have to worry about step up transformer because your phono stage has enough gain ( this help to the cartridge quality performance because the cartridge signal has not pass to additional stages: transformer, cables, connectors, etc. that makes a signal degradation always. ) and in the other side the quality performance of the MM/MI alternative is very good ( with your tonearm. ) and even better than the performance on the 103R and certainly over your CD.
This is a good choice:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ortofon-M20E-Super-MM-cartridge-M-20-E-Super-NOS_W0QQitemZ400085013949QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5d26ecd5bd#ht_2634wt_1165
Your call.
Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.
