Develop a hierarchy for phono playback

The bias against "cheap" cartridges is lame. The Sumiko Pearl at 125 bucks or so was amazing...I use an Ortofon Quintet Blue MC which at 500 bucks or so isn't cheap but also sounds amazing. Don't be fooled by elitist baloney as there are tons of great sounding inexpensive options.

Very interesting, but I think it's more about figuring out the weakest link in your system as well as system synergy, rather than a strict hierarchy.

My system consists of a significantly upgraded Garrard 301 with an Ikeda tonearm.

The tonearm cable is Nordost Odin 2, which was a significant upgrade or the Nordost V2. I didn't think it would make much difference and I was wrong.

The cartridge varies, but is usually the Ikeda 9GSS or MSL Platinum.

I just upgraded my preamp to the Luxman CL-1000, which was a significant upgrade. At one point I had a couple of expensive stand alone phono preamps, but I prefer having them integrated into the preamp to cut down the box count.

According to most formulas, I have too much tonearm cable, and maybe not enough phono preamp depending on how much of the CL-1000 is attributed to phono preamp. As for the Garrard, people love or hate it. I love it.

Overall IMO a well balanced and excellent sounding analog front end as far as I can tell

+1 bdp24

Transducers always have the largest impact on sound transmission.

@billstevenson 

I think you left the most important factor off your list and that is cartridge alignment.  It may ruffle some feathers but a properly aligned $500 cartridge will sound better than a casually aligned $5000 cartridge.  

dave

@intactaudio  Won't speak for the OP but the assumption is that the cartridge would have proper set up including compliance/leveled turntable and vibration control.