Turntable versus tonearm versus cartridge: which is MOST important?

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. 

Like everything else in audio, there are extremely expensive examples of tables ($500k +) and tonearms ($70 k +) and cartridges ($20 k).  But, I think you can get quite close to state of the art sound at MUCH lower prices with a good table/arm/cartridge selection than you can with comparably priced speakers and amps.  For the $10 k budget, you do not have to make big compromises in sound. 

A local dealer who has assembled system well north of $1 million, and has many customers with systems costing more than $100,000, will recommend as worthy tables reconditioned Thorens 124 and Garrard 301 or 401 tables with Ortofon tonearms.  Sometimes the cartridge recommendation is pricey (Koetsu Rosewood Platinum), but still, the combination is much less than recommended speakers or amplification.  

A local dealer who has assembled system well north of $1 million, and has many customers with systems costing more than $100,000, will recommend as worthy tables reconditioned Thorens 124 and Garrard 301 or 401 tables with Ortofon tonearms. Sometimes the cartridge recommendation is pricey (Koetsu Rosewood Platinum)

He's probably too old