Turntable versus tonearm versus cartridge: which is MOST important?

Don’t quite understand, Raul. What parameters, other than the physical, do you mean?

@terry9 , you really don't want to ask raul that question. The answer will get pornographic fast.

@atmasphere , how come I always have to take the heat for dissing unipivot tonearms? 

Have you checked out my thread on dust cover blues? I would appreciate if you would contribute. Forget about the dust cover thing. What do you think is going on?

how come I always have to take the heat for dissing unipivot tonearms?

That's what we pay you for, right?

I won't waste bandwidth by quoting Ralph's post of today at 3:35 pm but it echoes what I have been trying to say in this thread. Take a well designed no frills drive like a Gem Dandy or PureFidelity (among any number of other candidates), fit it with a great arm and a $100-$250 cartridge, get it dialed in and watch the awe and amazement ensue. You CAN NOT replicate the same result with either of the other two possible combinations. And yes, there are theoretically nine total combinations so you can look at this way too-any combination that does not include an excellent tonearm is doomed. 

The 500 $ Cartridge on a 10k $ Turntable / arm combination will sound better than the expensive cartridge on a wobbly basis.

what will sound even better is a balanced system 50% turntable /tonearm, 25% cartridge and 25% phono preamplifier.