I would agree with Jafox that you will probably not get any general concensus on this. That being said, I would not want to be shelling out big money (ie. $700-$1000) on tranformer(s)/stepups realizing you are probably going to have to do another high quality interconnect as well. Do a search at Vinyl Asylum and perhaps post there on cost effective transformers such as the Cinemag if you have a decent extra IC hanging around.
Once you get into spending $700-$1000, I'd want to be very sure that the step-up/CJ combination was going to be extremely good and for that to happen you're going to have to have: a) great step up b) great phono stage in your CJ c) great extra interconnect and d) synergy with all the above. I'd be looking at some stand alone phono stages in that price range (and obviously trying to audition them in your system).
The stand alone phono stage will not only grossly simplify things, if you look at the right stages you will have greater flexibility (at least in terms of ease of use or "plug & play") down the road should you change cartridges again.
Once you get into spending $700-$1000, I'd want to be very sure that the step-up/CJ combination was going to be extremely good and for that to happen you're going to have to have: a) great step up b) great phono stage in your CJ c) great extra interconnect and d) synergy with all the above. I'd be looking at some stand alone phono stages in that price range (and obviously trying to audition them in your system).
The stand alone phono stage will not only grossly simplify things, if you look at the right stages you will have greater flexibility (at least in terms of ease of use or "plug & play") down the road should you change cartridges again.