I always recommend getting return option on anything involving Phono, it is about ’preferred’ not necessarily ’better’.
Think long, possible future cartridges, (preferred, alternate, stereo, mono) possible two tonearms, PASS for MM, a few optional gains, a few optional loads, and possibly two inputs, external front selectable the easiest.
It’s very nice to be able to play friend’s cartridges occasionally, gonna hear one here friday.
The Sutherland, you need to remove it’s cover and change jumpers to change settings, fine for any single cartridge, but not good for alternates.
In my case MM Phono EQ via tube preamp's MM Phono Stage; MM Pass and MC Options via passive Step Up Transformer
My loading is directly tied to the 4 optional gains, so I must choose cartridges that fit those specifics, separate gain and load is needed for some cartridges with let’s say ’quirky’ rather than ’difficult’ combo of coil impedance and signal strength.
