Tone arm vs Cartridge upgrades

@tablejockey 

+1 excellent question.

I have had good and high end turntables for many decades. Although I do not have direct knowledge of your components specifically. For the most significant pop… the cartridge. A $2K cartridge will likely make the biggest difference.

But a question. Are you trying to systematically put together an audiophile analog leg? If so, then the answer might be different. You want to look at where you want to be in a few years. This would definitely put a greater emphasis on the phono stage, because this will set the base sonics for the whole leg. You will want to choose other components on this basis of what your phone stage, preamp,  amp and speakers sounds like, and your tastes of course. 

I’ve used several arms and dozens of cartridges. There are certainly differences in arms, and egregious mechanical mismatches must be avoided - but IMO cartridges yield bigger sonic differences, and are far more fun to roll. Most cartridges in fact sound excellent once partnered to the right phono stage config - but also quite different. And sometimes the best sonic surprises aren’t the most expensive - many awesome sounding cartridges exist at more reasonable price points, and also from bygone eras. That’s why it’s fun. My preference in arms is a good solid gimbal w/ metal arm tube and removable headshells.

You can debate advanced resonances & energy management all day, fixate on lowering bearing friction towards zero, and convince yourself exotic arm tube materials & design are necessary to unlock the last bit of sound quality - but at the end of the day these don’t positively correlate to the kind of sound quality I’m after.

You arm & table seem solid. I’d focus on cartridge AND phono stage. 

Once you start playing at the higher end of cartridges, an improved tonearm can add quite a lot. I have a Dynavector XV-1s. Recently it was installed on a Clearaudio Tracer tonearm on my turntable and it really shined and played well. Not lone ago I moved it over to a Clearaudio 12" Universal tonearm on the same turntable. The Universal costs twice what the Tracer does, and is a much better tonearm. Playing the XV-1s on the Universal is as if I moved up the range to a next level cartridge. It's so much better. 

Whether $2k is better spent on an upgraded tonearm or upgraded cartridge depends. It's more about balance. Higher end cartridges may need a better tonearm to reveal what they are really capable of reproducing.The phono-stage is an important factor too.

Thanks for the all the advice.

Answers to above questions:

Its the Origin Live Silver based on the Rega tone arm

The phono stage is the Leben RS 30 EQ ( and it's quite nice - particularly with upgraded NOS tubes )