And cleaning solution, protractor for cart alignment, etc, etc. It all adds up. That's even before you buy replacement outer jackets and inner sleeves. Oh, I forgot the record cleaning brushes and some sort of brush (likely carbon fibre) to dust the vinyl between plays.
As for the original question, it's my opinion (and everyone has one) that the phono stage and the turntable have some pretty hard jobs to do (more so than the cartidge itself).
The sound really starts with the table. Only about half of the music resides on the vinyl. The other have is the time element of the spinning record. The turntable's job is to spin the vinyl flat and true (speed) - a far harder job than it seems. One needs a good bearing and motor (among other things) to achieve this. There are also resonnance issues within the table to consider. This is all before the music is even picked up by the cartidge/arm combo.
Now on first glance the phono stage would appear to have the easier job, but it does not. Apparently these things are harder to build that linestages (which have volume knobs, and selector switches, etc). It probably has to do with handling the delicate (very) low-level signals from the cart and amplifying them an insane amount of times (100-1000x) while trying to apply RIAA equilization (or is that equilization in reverese?) to the signal.
Maybe budget things like this
$500-1000 for accessories,
..then with the remainder
35% table
35% phono
18% arm
12% cart
But I do agree with the others that the analog system needs to be taken as a "whole." Some pieces perform very well from the cost. So actual pieces of gear need to be considered.
