New to Turntables

This is an interesting combo of approaches you have here. If you are truly sticking in that lane, I'll toss out this line of thought. 

- If you start with a nicer table and lesser cart, you can easily upgrade the cart later. But if you start with a lesser table and nicer cart, you might not get everything out of the cart and you'd need to replace the whole table for the next level up. 

Having said that, I have a Mofi Ultradeck and I recently added a Hana ML. The Ultradeck is certainly up to the task, and I think it should be with the Ultragold as well. 

The phonostage in your preamp will get you started, but the MC stage might not be an ideal match for the Ultragold (or any other MC cart). As you move up into MC carts, phonostage matching kind of becomes more important. I also just recently started musing an SUT, which is a whole different rabbit hole, but something you could explore down the road as well. 

@shelly40, I would opt for the Music Hall, because I prefer the sound of hefty plinth designs and their other design features are exceptional also

I can highly recommend Simmaudio Moon phono stages, they are exceptional and configurable to most any cartridge.

Also consider Zavfino cables, they make a world of difference on an  analogue path

Regards steve

I ended up going with the Ultradeck, with the Ultragold cartridge….Military discount included, paid 2250 for the table and cartridge….seems like a decent deal…. Especially with the return window……

I have a 60 day return policy, but hopefully, this will do the trick…..

gonna use the phono input on the Mac preamp…. See how it sounds….. 

I can always add an external phono stage if needed…

should have it by end of next week…

shelly

Get the most expensive one you can afford 

Otherwise you will always second think it