Turntable versus tonearm versus cartridge: which is MOST important?

Dear @bobbydd : According with almost all those gentlemans that already posted you need to change your TT and tonearm and you can go a ghead on that kind of advise. Now, your vintage front end is as " decent " as the Clearaudio if you make a tonearm rewiring and along " better " headshell a new better headshell wires.

In the other side: in both front ends who is putting the tonal color?, yes both transducers and your cartridges are way different in any single design characteristic, the only common in between shared characteristic is that both are transducers. Useless to make any kind of performance levels in between.

What you need is a cartridge that be near to your MUSIC/audio listening priorities along your room/system.
You need a different overall natural tonal " color " and you can go with either MM/MI or LOMC alternatives. Several options down there.

Good luck with that cartridge " hunting ".

R.

Of course that maybe with some tweaks to your room/system could change the today overall tonal color. Could be a little help but nothing as " radical " as a different transducer. Your call.

Basically, I’m in the process of upgrading my TT in my second system. The current unit is vintage (Pioneer PL600 - the good one) into a Hana EL cartridge. Total investment: $500.

Why do you think it’s a good one? The PL600 is fully automatic old entry level turntable from Pioneer. The good one is PL-70L II

Had the opportunity to directly compare it in my system to a Clearaudio Performance DC/Satisfy Carbon arm/Lyra Delos cartridge. Total cost around $7K.

This is radically overpriced, compare it to brand new Technics SL1200GR for $1700 new.

The latter was better in most parameters especially with respect to dynamics, detail, resolution.

This is LYRA CARTRIDGE

Tonality/frequency balance was more natural with the vintage system (less upper frequency glare). Bass was comparable between each unit. Both rigs were enjoyable to listen to.

In my opinion the best cartridge for your entry level Pioneer turntable and its tonearm is Moving Magnet Pioneer PC-1000 mk2 with Beryllium cantilever, amazing cartridge that you can compare with multi thousand dollars MC (which I did many times).

So naturally I’m trying to determine how much of the sonic differences are due to the cartridges themselves, versus the other components. Ideally I’d like the resolution of the new rig and the tonal balance of the vintage set up.

If you like vintage turntables try to find the best of them, not an entry level unit that gives you nothing of that “vintage sound”, especially if you are using it with Modern MC cartridge.

Upgrade your turntable to a better Pioneer PL-70L II and try Pioneer PC-1000 mk2 cartridge (you will be blown away). This is really good vintage system!

****

P.S. I like a mix of vintage and new high-end, you’re welcome to virtual tour of my system where you can find many different cartridges from relatively cheap vintage MM to extremely expensive new MC. Many tonearms and turntables. If you ever need my advice for vintage MM just send me a message.   

I I agree with Raul. Assuming one has a GOOD table and arm- good tracking, steady speed…
Then cartridge is most important. It all starts with the cartridge. 

While I generally agree with the consensus view that putting an expensive cartridge on a modestly priced turntable is a poor choice, I agree with @rauliruegas given my personal experience. Budget turntables come with cartridges that cost well under $100. Awhile ago I posted to this forum seeking advice. I also did my own research, which is harder given the difficulty and complexity of component matching with turntables, arms, etc. I ultimately followed the recommendations of both Pro-Ject and Ortofon and replaced the pre-mounted Ortofon with the 2m Bronze. It provided an immediately recognizable improvement in just about everything, detail and clarity especially. It was not a $10k cartridge, only a $400-$450 cartridge, but way beyond the stock cartridge. And the fine line stylus is well suited to playing my older vinyl, much dating to the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, some from Dad even older. By pulling sound from deeper in the grooves as noted in the literature, the fine line stylus shape very noticeably reduced noise and pulled out detail. Cartridge upgrades can make sense for modestly priced turntables. 
But as always, you need to match the components so they work well together. I appreciated the advice from the turntable and cartridge manufacturers. Installation and set up of the 2m Bronze were easy and the results were gratifying. 
And as recommended by many members of this forum, don’t forget to evaluate different phono stages! I upgraded mine and again had a noticeable improvement in sound quality. 

remember a member here have good tt and tonearm. uses Lyra sounds horrible .. Ops it's the phonostage. I had similar hilarious experiences like that as well.. so..

the tt also imparts a certain coloration as the tonearm do.. as nuetral as they can be all do have a certain coloration that can work or go against. very easy to make a expensive cart sound bad or mediocre in the system. that could be when a lousier cart can be better. been there as well

I had instance with a crap thorens 125 with noisy spindle, bad speed control as well. I have a luxman not even with a steady speed but both with  a good tonearm. isn't as bad as one thinks.. and both is able to sound great.. but I'm sure the a better condition thorens will sound much better. the luxman surprisingly sounded fantastic. 

however.. if the tonearm condition is bad... no go totally. If the tonearm quality is bad.. also no go.. so I think tonearm should be the :best most important. then the cart. though some suites certain types of cart more.. not all expensive tonearm will suite all expensive carts.. or the most sophisticated cart will sound best in any good tonearm or tt combination.. 

 

It's not such a hard and fast rule in my opinion.. should just be relax yet good observations in case we miss out something.. easy to mess up. 

good weekend to all enjoy it.