As Ultrakaz stated above, it depends upon just what level of performance you are after, and how much you are willing to spend to get it. The lower ouput cartridges generally are better, and also require more gain. You can do it with a higher gain phono section, or get a step up transformer. Either way will require some investment, as well as the additional cost for the cartridges under consideration. This is a very important area of the analog playback system, and should receive close attention if you are to get the best results.
Getting a preamp with enough gain in the phono stage to handle the low output cartridges may be similar or even cheaper than getting a step up transformer, depending on what model you choose. However, many tube phono sections are too low gain for these cartridges, and would require a step up anyway. Most high gain phono sections are solid state, or hybrid. I feel you would be sonically better off to use a tube phono stage for many reasons, particularly the overload margins. There are some all tube phono sections that have enough gain, but they can be expensive. Again, we come down to the budget.
