Voltage mode vs current mode phono stages

It is very straightforward-

Moving Magnet cartridges produce high voltage, but low current.

Moving coil cartridges produce high current ( higher than MM's ) but very low voltage.

Moving coil step up transformers convert the high current/low voltage of a moving coil  to high voltage low current.

Alternately a better option for moving coil cartridges is to use a current gain input stage instead of a voltage gain input stage. This suits the MC better and in theory should have less loss because you are not converting current to voltage as a precursor to the amplification of the very small signal.

Good explanation Dover. So what phono cartridge does the OP have?

Just to embellish what Dover wrote, the upshot of his analysis is that for LOMC cartridges with very low internal resistance (10 ohms or less?), all other things being equal, a current drive phono stage makes a lot of sense (because the capacity to produce signal as current is inversely proportional to the internal resistance). But you will not want to use such a phono stage with MM or MI cartridges and even not so much with some LOMCs that have a relatively high internal resistance, e.g., >20 ohms, although that is far from a hard cut-off. From what I can tell, most current drive phono stages consist of an input stage that converts current to voltage. Downstream from the I/V converter is pretty much like any other high gain phono stage.

Ok thanks now please explain phono stages that are voltage mode and phono stages that are current mode?

See above. For current drive the phono stage input impedance needs to be as near zero as possible so as to “see” the cartridge as a current source. It also has be amplified by current and to put out amplified voltage in response to current. That’s why I called it an I/V converter. Ultimately the stage has to put out amplified voltage just like a conventional stage. It’s basically as simple as Ohm’s Law. Conversely a conventional voltage driven stage has to have an input impedance that is a multiple of the cartridge internal resistance, in order to amplify its output voltage.