Phono preamp or SUT for low output moving coil

well, if you like your onboard phono section, get an SUT or two or three.

if not, how much you wanna spend on phono amplification altogether?

Viridian, As i see it, and as I just wrote it, yes, in theory the current driven phono stage presents a dead short to the cartridge, but in fact it cannot, because if it did, you would have a fancy mute switch. There's the rub with current drive.

How about a Mola Mola Lupe?

Virudian, but how about a situation where the internal R of the cartridge is well below the input Z of the phono stage? These days that’s quite possible. Is that now voltage drive, or what? There are now several LOMCs with R less that 2 ohms and several “trans impedance” phono stages with Z greater than 2 ohms, even up to 12 ohms. I don’t know about the Sutherland in particular. Anyway, I only point this out because it may explain my actual listening experience. And those of some others. And what I hear is that each mating can give a qualitatively different result, sufficient gain is not the problem.