budget split between cart and phono stage

Depends on how big the budget is.

I think there are some terrific phono stages out there for $500-$700 (i.e. Phonomena, Lehmann, etc.)

There are several outstanding cartridges in the $450 - $800 range, like ClearAudio, Benz, etc.

What is your total budget?

Cartridges are transducers, like speakers and microphones, so their sonic variations tend to be much greater than electronics. My advice would be to find a cartridge you like, and use whatever money you have left to buy a phono stage, rather than going in with a preordained ratio.

At the cheaper end I would go for 50-50. e.g. $100 on cartridge, 100 on phono. I don't have any experience on the more expensive stuff (>$150).
E.g. rega super bias - creek OBH8
audio technica at-95 - project/NAD phono. (even cheaper !)
Sorry for cluttering the thread if you're batting way above this level.

My total budget would be around 900 USD.
In fact I am focussing on a small idea in coupling a Denon 103 with a Phonomena. Would you also consider a ear834 or due to its tubes better not to get it with MC's ??
Tks

Bomarc's comments are very relevant. I'd go beyond his remarks to add that the phono stage can make a huge difference, since it must take a very weak current generated by the cartridge and amplify it in a very linear fashion before passing the signal to the preamp. Whenever an audio component is responsible for handling very low voltage signals, the designer is faced with a real challenge. Fortunately, as others have noted, there are some very good, moderately priced (by high end standards) phono preamps on the market today, such as those made by Creek, Lehmann Audio (Black Cube and Black Cube SE), Coph Nia, etc.

If you plan to get a better quality cartridge (in the $500-750 range), then you should probably be thinking of a phono preamp that costs about the same.

As a personal recommendation, I urge you to consider the Lehmann Audio Black Cube SE. About two years ago, I looked at a number of phono preamps for my system, and thought the Black Cube offered a lot of performance for the price, particularly when purchased used on Audiogon. I bought the Black Cube, and subsequently upgraded it to the SE version, which provides significant improvement over the standard version. As a caveat, however, there are some users who think that the Black Cube SE is a better phono stage when used with moving magnet or moving iron (Grados, specifically) than when used with moving coil cartridges.

Mr. Campbell is right about the challenge facing designers of phono stages. (He didn't mention RIAA equalization, which not every maker does equally well.) But the differences among phono stages are still dwarfed by the differences among cartridges. That's why I think if you find a cartridge you really like, and its price means you have to settle for a less expensive phono stage, you're probably still well ahead of the game. (OTOH, I would not assume that a more expensive cartridge is necessarily a better cartridge. Keep an open mind.)