Love that carry case Zanduby, whered you get that? Also, since you mix a little, could you recommend some decent cartridges/needles for a little mixing and a lot of listening?
Carry case was bought at a local store years and years ago. You can stil find them on ebay and other sites.
I've used Shure M44-7 Cartridges for a very long time. They are a great over all needle. They aren't too fancy, but don't sound like ****. I've used them for scratching and general play. I do prefer to play on Ortofons, but they are just too expensive for me.
I'm coming only from a hifi end, but totally agree on Ortofons. The 2m Red is actually really cheap and a fantastic cart for the price. If you are really serious about getting into hifi I would also strongly recommend their MC carts, especially the Quintet line. I've used their moving coil carts for years (Quintet Red and Bronze) and can very obviously hear a difference over MM carts.
When getting into records I usually recommend upgrading Turntable - Speakers - Amp (if needed) - Phono Pre Amp - Cartridge in that order.
Speakers provide the most audible difference in sound quality. Depending on if you use powered speakers or not upgrading an amplifier first/with speakers may be in line. I also recommend upgrading the phono pre before the cart because a moving coil cartridge will require a proper phono pre due to the fact that they are much quieter than moving magnet carts, so upgrading to a really nice cart without a proper preamp may leave you stranded, or sub par sound.
For most people just a decent turntable and nice speakers is more than enough. Don't go upgrading to a really nice cartridge without the other upgrades just because the difference in sound won't be noticeable, or fully realized without a full hifi system.
Sure, the 2m series is great, but for a Technics 1200 I'd go for the OM or Concorde series. Then you can have a dual purpose DJ/Hi-fi player by just swapping between styli and adjusting the force. The concordes are even specifically made for the Technics (and its clones), so you don't need to mess with mounting and adjusting the cart in a headshell. KAB even sell custom configurations with hi-fi styli on Concorde carts, just because it's easy to setup, and it looks and sounds great. (Ok the compliance of the hi-fi styli won't be 100% optimized for the tonearm mass when using the Concorde, but good enough not to cause much, if any at all, trouble.)
Going the pure hi-fi route all in with expensive speakers, amps, preamps and moving coil carts, I would not go for the Technics anyways. Not without the modifications needed to get it on par with the rest of the system at least. You'd wanna rewire the tonearm, get a tonearm dampener and stuff like that.
Getting started with vinyl one thing is more important than anyting else IMHO, and thats getting a cart with a needle and setup that won't ruin your precious vinyl. Too much or too little force will make the stylus wear the records more than necessary, and an incorrect cart setup will make the tracking bad, and bad tracking equals record wear. Worn down old needles will also tear on your vinyls, so.. get new, decent stuff, and make sure it's setup right.