Turntable versus tonearm versus cartridge: which is MOST important?

Millercarbon said it all.
My addendum:The most economical route may be to keep on upgrading arm and table, while having a cheap(er) cartridge that can step up big way.Not all cartridges can step up when the table/arm combo is greatly elevated.I found the Audiotechnica ATF7 is such a hidden gem. Totally inexpensive LOMC cartridge, as cheap as LOMC can get. I got it as a backup cartridge to test play my second hand records. On the big table it plays in big cartridge league, and each improvement on arm / table / step up made it step up higher and higher. Athough, I have to add I never tried it on the Rega or other cheaper tables / arms, so don't know how it performs on a cheap table... but that's kind of out of the question as LOMC step up on the cheap is pretty bad. In the low price range MM is the way to go. A cheap MM cartridge that can play big time on big tables is the AT440MLa or MLb. (good luck finding MLa version! But sadly even the AT440MLb have become quite expensive now, while 20 years ago it was a cheap(ish) cartridge!) On a basic table (Rega P3, with Rega arm) for example the AT440MLb and the Grado Prestige sound quite in the same league - different presentation style, but similar performance. Put them on a big VPI-caliber table, and the AT440MLb skyrockets and the little Grado falls apart. The ATF7 is cheaper than the AT440MLb, yet on a big table it completely eclipses the AT440MLb. Yet, the AT440MLb has nothing to be ashamed of either, and its lifespan and durability is absolutely outstanding.

Dear  @mijostyn : "  the rest of us are hallucinatory. ", not exactly.

I think that problem is that several of the posts are taking the TT and tonearm main characteristics to make a good job, are " disecting " each item when in my view it's an issue that should ve analised as a whole one.

Yes, if the TT has not a decent speed stability then we have to fix it changing it but with that kind of " attitude " it's " healthy " to say that the more important link is the electrical power or the TT arm mount or its type of screws used on it and all these is " crazy " for say the least. There is no whole context is almost " stupid ".

For me the issue is not to analyse each item link isolated but as a whole system with specific premises.

All we know the importance of TT speed stability and about non-vibrational plynths or about the rigth TT mat and clamp: so what? all those each item characteristics are implicit when we are talking of TT. We are not newcomers, do you?

As I said we need an overall context with scaled analog system . For me has no sense try to do it as other gentlemans already did it.

Obviously makes sense to you and to them.

Never mind , transducers always are the most important links in any audio system.

Which is more important: speakers or an amp?

Transducers are the ones that have the higher posibilities to make higher differences for the better or for worst.

Analog is simple but really complex due to its imperfections levels everywhere down there with to many different " parameters " with an inherent relationship in between. It's a madness and you said that TT/tonearm comes first?

Everything is important and that's why we should try to talk on not isolated items scenario but as a scaled systems.

Good for you and the other gentlemans that are happy inside that " hallucinatory " mind scenario. Go a head ! ! ! 

R.

Raul, no sensible audiophile could disagree with what you wrote. (Is the term “sensible audiophile” an oxymoron?) But at the outset, the OP wrote that he did not want responses to the effect that everything is important. This I think drove the tenor of the responses he’s gotten. I dislike such questions per se, but I was bored enough at that moment to concoct a response. With an excellent TT and tonearm, you can get a lot of juice out of a mediocre cartridge, but I don’t think the reverse is true. Not in my experience.

@chakster
"I’ll tell you more: change the stylus tip on your cartridge and you will change the whole sound."
I agree completely. I just re-tipped the Zyx Omega G cartridge and the sound is completely different with the original. Better or worse is another story.

Never mind , transducers always are the most important links in any audio system.

Raul, anyone who has ever spent ten seconds on this Board in the last ten years knows you have a unrequited out of control cartridge fetish. I envision you sleeping on a mattress surrounded by cartridge boxes. 

Transducers are not the most important part of the audio system. You may believe so and you have every right to your belief but many argue otherwise, and I am among the latter camp. Look up Herb Reichert's recent tale of wandering into an audio store and being introduced to Naim gear set up with inexpensive loudspeakers for a good anecdotal account of the opposing view. 
Cartridges and loudspeakers are very simple devices. Only audiophiles make them out to be more complicated and exotic than they really are. Do they have the biggest influence on sound character? That is a different question. Sorta like are noses the most dominant feature on a face? Yeah, most times and certainly on mine! That does not make them the most critical component. 
Feed a pair of the most expensive loudspeaker on the planet (any of the top 50) with a mediocre amplifier and preamplifier and you can never get anything better than mediocre to good sound. Pair a pedestrian set of loudspeakers (critically positioned in the room they are in) up with a stellar amp and pre-amp and you can get great sound. 
Which brings us back to the current debate which has surfaced time and time again. Like my nose joke, turntables get the most attention because-imho-they are the most prominent item. The choice of drive unit is almost inevitably made first. It draws all the attention of would-be buyers. Ooooh, look at that huge platter! Ooooh, look at that outboard power supply with a digital read out! You get the idea. Most of us are guilty of that misdirected (again, must my humble op) focus. 
I am biased perhaps because I got off the modern era table bandwagon and went to vintage with Reed 3P arms though I have spent considerable money on cartridges. But I know that could give up those cartridges and mount a $250 Audio Technica or Denon and get fantastic sound.