SL-1200GME Turntable

OP,

https://www.vtl.com/products/phono-preamplifiers/tp2-5/

you have 1 MM and two MC gain settings; and several MC impedance settings

this is a chart, two vertical columns, the lines dissapeared

left column is MC, right column is MM

Congratulations on your new GME.  I have the older GAE and from that experience offer the following thoughts.  Your arm is medium mass, stick with the OEM head shell unless the cartridge you settle on has very high mass and very low compliance, in which case you should use a higher mass head shell.  That would be a very unusual choice.  Your GME will work well with the vast majority of cartridges on the market.  It is quite versatile.  You will find that it works quite well and is compatible with both MM and MC cartridges from any of the major manufacturers.  I have used mine successfully with cartridges that retailed ranging from sub $500 to $10,000.  In terms of your question about SUTs, it has been my experience that for low output cartridges, the insertion of a transformer between the cartridge and the phono stage is always serendipidous.  I use the 47 kohm input with an SUT in preference to high gain direct stages, even though I have the option.  That is true both using my solid state and tube phono preamps.   If you really want to dig into the technical arguments for transformers, I believe you might find something by or about the work of John Curl on this subject.

I avoided buying used cartridges, until I decided to risk it. This seller is one I trust and would buy again from:

https://reverb.com/item/95620911-audio-technica-vm760slc-vm-type-stereo-cartridge-w-hs-4-headshell-from-japan

It has their best stylus, Special Line Contact, which also has the longest life due to it’s largest amount of contact area (which requires excellent alignment). 

It’s cantilever is aluminum, I don’t know why they didn’t use boron, perhaps to offer the best stylus, and keep the price down a bit. We have all had excellent sounding cartridges with aluminum.

As far as Imaging, it has 30db separation, and channel balance of 1.0 db. To get tighter 0.5db channel balance you will need to spend a good bit more.

Here is the newer x version, boron cantilever, and body threads for easier mount.

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-eu/cartridges/type/moving-magnet/at-vm760xsl

btw, these are MM, with the advantage of user replacable stylus.

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-eu/vmx-series-cartridge

If you ever see a discontinued model, even one with a worn tip, broken cantilever (I've done that twice) a new stylus, even an upgraded one may be possible, or have a re-tipper like VAS re-build it.

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-eu/support/which-stylus-can-i-use-to-replace-my-discontinued-model

Moving Coil

It’s not an absolute, but the guidance for impedance loading is:

cartridge coil impedance x 10, so a coil like the AT33 mentioned above is 10 ohms, thus recommended load is around 100 ohms (no need to be exact). I have the AT33PTG/II and like it very much.

Just check if one of your phono stage's MC loading options is close to the resulting combo you are considering

you have options: 100Ω, 250Ω, 470Ω, 1kΩ, 4k7Ω, 47kΩim. just divide by 10, and see if that is close to the cartridge’s coil impedance.

The reason I mention this is because there are some difficult combinations of output strength/coil impedance out there.

Moving Coil (non-replaceable stylus)

You might look at what ’trade-in’ offers the makers have.

Soundsmith has a reduced price when you trade in a cartridge with a worn stylus. 

Audio Technica sold me a new AT33PTG/II for slightly less than half price a few years ago when I sent in my original one that I suspected was worn.

Others______?