Turntable versus tonearm versus cartridge: which is MOST important?

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.

@atmasphere ,

"The cost of the cartridge has almost nothing to do with it. This all comes from the arm and how well the cartridge compliance and weight works to allow for the mechanical resonance to fall into the right frequency."

Well said.

Our human mind, as we know, is often easily overloaded and it then usually tries to simplify matters by resorting to general principles.

These can be called prejudices and more often than not they are useful when making decisions.

One such prejudice is that higher cost always equals greater performance.

However, when it comes to sonic performance I don’t see any great correlation with cost. The best I can suggest is that it seems to resemble a bell curve where beyond a certain point, performance can often start to go down.

Some might say that beyond a certain point, it has nowhere else to go!

Therefore throwing increasingly large sums of money at audio products might be the surest way to ultimate disappointment.

A bit like trading your Lexus in for ’something better’.

Turntable/tonearm/cartridge compatibility (and siting) might be one of the least understood areas in all of domestic audio.

What we do know is that resonance control matters.

What we don’t always know is how best to achieve it.

So that means sometimes we do then? Whew! What a relief!

The 500 $ Cartridge is 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.

When it comes to numbers it’s nothing, because your $10k tonearm is 30-50-70% cheaper on the secondhand market, but it’s the same tonearm.

BUT your $500 cartridge can be more expensive in time if it’s a great cartridge like some of those vintage MM or MC, they are getting more expensive if the condition is still NOS after 30 years (and, of course if many users are still fascinated about the sound). Your calculations are wrong, because a $500 cartridge from the 80s today will cost $1500 (for example).   You can use a great cartridge on any great tonearm if you like the sound. I’ve heard $450 cartridges on $5000 tonearms and it was a stunning combination in direct comparison to more expensive cartridges.  

The system balance you measure in % is nonsense if you will take a whole picture. The balance is only about the sound and you can’t measure it in $ or in %. 

Some people are living in the world of High-End Audio press where everything is high priced, they might think they need a system like M.Fremer has. In reality the brain can be totally satisfied with a well balanced and much cheaper system and it's not necessary to follow the reviews for cartridges that cost $15k each.    

Value judgments  are not ''truth-functional''. That is to say there is no

question about truth or falsity involved. To put this otherwise ''values

are cultural  determined''.  So not universal. A typical example of

difference between ''nature'' and '' nurture''. Trying to get consensus

about whatever component is trying to avoid the issue. Compare Chines

opera   with Mozart or Bach to get ''the picture''.