MC cart, until you realize that a better tonearm is needed to take advantage of the resolution of cart that you choose, then pre-amp since you realize your old pre-amp was crap, then you start hearing motor and/or bearing noise which means better table (motor, bearings), then you realize you need better blackness, so a precision motor to control RPM or a massive plinth and/or platter. Then you realize you need special wires from the cart to your phono-pre. Then you want super expensive transformers on your phono-pre to get the last bits of low-level information. Then you start all over again.

I do not recommend taking the path of vinyl.

Also, you'll discover your own preferences and hit dead-ends were you will need to do turn-arounds: direct drive or belt drive, long or not so long tonearms or linear tracking, heavy or light tonearms, appropriate carts to go with the tonearms, suspension or heavy mass, etc. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach. Some approaches start off better, but don't scale as much once you get into uber-land.

Hahaha. Vinyl is unquestionably a rabbit hole that one can easily fall down and hit the bottom with an empty wallet. That doesn't have to be the case though. A Yggdrasil is $2300, and even though it appears to be a stone cold bargain compared to most of the silly priced uber level DACs out there, that's still a fairly significant chunk of change.

For $2300, you could get a fully restored/modernized Thorens TD-160, an AT33-PTG/II, and a Lehmann Black Cube Phono pre. It won't kill everything in its path the way a Yggdrasil might, but you'd have to spend some pretty big bucks to genuinely beat it, say $3500+. Those old Thorens belt drives punch way above modern comparably priced tables, the 33-PTG/II is a super star, and the Black Cube is very capable for a cheap MM/MC preamp.

Also, if you're like me and you listen to rock and metal from the '70s through present day, I absolutely recommend going vinyl. For one thing, just about everything "mainstream" released on CD post 1993 sounds like shit.