Should I try a MC cartridge and phono pre?

Sonny, no matter which way you go you will need to address noise control--especially if you go for moving coils. Having a DD table I'd not be too concerned about MCs.

Sonny,

Sorry for the lingo, VA is Vinyl Asylum. Go to www.audioasylum.com. A link to K&K Audio is in the upper right hand corner. The FAQ's are VERY useful, or you can click on Vinyl for the discussion forum.

The K&K stepups can be set up to work with the the 103R just fine. That cartridge is pretty low output so you'll probably need more gain than some other cartridges would. Ask Kevin at K&K, he'll walk you through the whole thing. He may (should) ask for the gain of your phono and line stages, as I did earlier. He'll need to know this to choose the best turns ratio for the transformers. (The higher the turns ratio, the more gain you get from the transformer.)

Ask him about loading for the 103R when running through a stepup transformer also.

I'd certainly be willing to clear out 2-3 cubic feet in the basement by finding a good home for the PL stuff. I've even got the walnut cabinets. Have your friend email me if interested.

Psychicanimal, I guess what I am missing here is that the direct drive makes noise or hum that gets picked up by the more sensitive MC cartridges? Yes? I would still like to improve the sound anyway, up to a certain price point. Let the Law of Diminishing Returns control the $$$.
Sonny

Not if the cartridge is shielded.

Iseekheils...I never had any hum problem. Actually, because the MC circuit is much lower impedance than MM it is LESS sensitive to magnetic fields that cause hum. Same reason why transistorized preamps, with 50 ohm output impedance are less likely than 600 ohm tube preamps to have hum pickup in interconnects.