@pgaulke60 - enjoy your new table and arm. I’ve been running a linear tracking arm (Kuzma Airline) since around 2006-7. The arm itself is pretty bulletproof-- I’ve had issues with compressor oil leaking and eventually switched to an oilless compressor which is noisier, but I have it installed in a custom silencer box in another room.
There is something special about a good table with a linear arm. I don’t know your table/arm--I’m kind of out of it on the latest and greatest-- but I found that there is less sense of a turntable spinning (I use a very high mass table with the arm) and what I call the "halo" effect of the sound of the disc spinning.
Levelling is pretty critical but it isn’t that difficult. I wound up buying a big MinusK isolation table, not so much to "improve" sound, but to avoid footfalls in an old Victorian era house.
Cartridges- I know that there are people very devoted to the sound of one brand or another- Lyra, Van den Hul, etc. I’ve been through quite a few hi-line cartridges and found that the cartridge that gave me what my system needed-- more tonality and gravitas in the lower octaves, was a Koetsu stone. It seems to really like the linear arm- maybe because it is not a high compliance cartridge. This could be very system dependent. That is, I’m not necessarily recommending a Koetsu cartridge, but that change (from an Airtight Supreme), the isolation platform and the addition of more subwoofers (which I DSP’d) ameliorated the biggest weakness of my system- the discontinuity between the horn mid and tweets and the conventional integrated woofers.
It is so hard to trial this stuff. And given the price of high end cartridges today, it’s a commitment. I’m not sure I’d recommend any particular cartridge other than to make a few observations:
the lower compliance cartridges seem to work better in the linear arms- they do have high horizontal mass even though the theory is they are frictionless if set up properly;
What is the voicing you want? I had great mids with the Avantgarde horns -comparable to my old Quad ESL system (still running since around 1973 with updates, fresh glass, etc.) but far more dynamic, and anemic bass- tune the bass to have some punch and the coherence was lost. Tune them to blend- anemic. The combo of Koetsu, plus DSP’d additional subs and the isolation platform brought this system up several notches. Is it perfect? Of course not. My goal isn't perfection- it is to play back regular older vinyl records (I'm a buff for early '70s post bop jazz, which is not exactly a high point for vinyl in the States) in a way that sounds real.
The best option, short of buying a bunch of expensive cartridges, is to see if you can hear them via comparisons on another system. I know that won’t tell you what a given cartridge will sound like in your system but ....
in visiting the lovely, knowledgeable and funny Albert Porter a few weeks ago, we compared his Airtight Opus and a Koetsu Blue Lace on the same table with two identical arms (Kuzma 4 Pt. 14"- aka John Holmes edition). The Airtight was more linear sounding and neutral, the Koetsu added something-- more "wood’ on the sticks.
I know the objective is always supposed to be neutral but I have yet to hear a system that is truly neutral. And I’ve heard a lot of good systems over the years. You can always hear the man behind the curtain. So, take your time on the cartridge. I listened to a crazy expensive system here in Austin a few years ago with kilobuck cartridges mounted on three identical arms. One of the cartridges was an Audio Technica that retailed for less than $500. and it did not suck.
Enjoy~ and apologies for the length of this comment.