What does a tonearm contribute to the sound of a turntable?

@2channel8 The Jelco 850 and JAC501 cable will do what you are looking for. It is a very good arm. George Merrill has the best price. 

I agree with Simio and FsonicSmith above - I had a VPI Traveller turntable for a while and it was the 2nd Worse TT I've owned out of dozens. The worst was Nottingham Horizon which had a motor that caused vibrations on the tonearm so bad you could feel it.
After just a few days with the VPI Traveller, I lost a channel. I first suspected a cartridge lead - those were all okay. Then I checked the phono preamp tubes - all good there. I finally figured out that the phono box in the back of the Traveller had a loose connection.
I removed the two wood screws holding in the panel and I was so disappointed to see such a poor and flimsy soldering job. And this turntable is called the Traveller? The phono leads on my Rega RP10 are integrated and it sounds great to me. I don't get the point of removable cables on budget decks anyway. Besides, who's going to get a better deal on high quality cable, say from Cardas, a factory who buys in bulk or Vinyl Joe?

If the Jelco dropped the noise floor, you should most likely have to turn the volume down, not up.

@slaw I was wondering the same thing

@noromance ,

Thanks for your reply.