Turntable newbie info site?

Good choice @ymc226 , especially the "G" model.

Your Mac has an MM phono input, so this is a good starting point, you can use some decent MM/MI cartridge and you don’t need an external phono stage, indeed. You can even add SUT (Step Up Trans) if you’re willing to use an LOMC cartridge with the same Mac Phono input. So you’re fine.

We’re looking for a better sound and this is the reason to try different phono stages or different cartridges when you're bored.

With Technics SL1200G you don’t have to worry about tonearms and stuff, the alignment of the cartridge in the headshell is so easy (there is an overhang gauge from technics).

We have many fans of Technics 1200G here, you will find so many comments, everybody happy.

Yes, totally in agreement with the comments expressed by chakster.

I wish someone had offered me similar advice decades ago. They probably did but my head was firmly stuck in the (totally misleading) advice offered by the UK magazines of the day.

You can spend an age getting to grips with turntable tech, ... or just go and buy the best Technics deck you can afford.

Wonderful machines.

I am feeling much more comfortable starting my TT experience with the Technics SL1200G and see that there is a very lightly used one for sale on the forum.  Getting close to purchasing it.  If I do, I will ask for advice on an initial "starter" cartridge.  Thanks again for all of the advice given.  I believe it has saved me time and money.

The best way to save money is to spend time. So you are off to a good start. Go and listen to as many rigs as you can. Getting good LP playback everything matters. So pay attention to every detail in the chain of everything you try- table, arm, cartridge, what the table is sitting on, phono stage, all the wire, and of course also the system its being played on.

Best is if you can find a place that will let you play the same record on the same system with different turntables. Good luck. But try. 

Another thing, relax. Every turntable out there is gonna do very naturally what every CD ever made never has been able to do: make music. I'm not kidding. I dug out my old Technics SL-1700 (with an old Stanton 681EEE with a bent cantilever) and my wife and I both preferred it to CD. Analog also tends to retain its value a lot better than digital. That same old Technics SL1700 from 1976 is worth more today than it sold for new. Digital? Disposable. Deservedly so.

So relax. Go and listen. Enjoy your music.

I know I may have rushed it, but reading about all the improved musicality of TT, I just bought on Audiogon, a like new Technics SL 1200G so it will work on my McIntosh MX 135 pre-amp which I understand has a MM phono stage.  

It is being delivered next week so I would like recommendations on a MM "starter" or more intermediate cartridge that would pair well with my new to me TT.  I listen to classic rock mostly with some classical as well.