Your choice - TT, Arm, Stage, Cartridge - $5000 budget

moofoo,

All the great & rare vinyl that younger guys missed will be available when we pass.

Wives will sell collections that took 45yrs to build for next to nothing.

1st pressings, UK, Holland, Telefunkens, Toshiba Pro, MFSLs, other Audiophile pressings and just plain great pressings/recordings.

They are here in our collections just waiting for the future. 

The 2nd Coming of vinyl is in storage; Waiting for the next generation.


Vinyl Lives ; Tubes Rule

whacky-IMO, a good score w/cart.

Mission accomplished on the table end. Good luck on whatever you decide phono stage.

Edit: considering we have the same amp along end results, I would look at maxing your budget on the phono. If your final choice is a tubed, I would go in no particular order:Allnic,Herron,Manley,Zesto....etc.Someone else will add another amp.

 Saving a few bucks:Manley Chinook, Fosgate V2.....etc..  Under $1500

Now, this is a quite good cartridge, and if it's A-stock the price is excellent. It is quite heavy, you should talk to VPI people about compatibility with the arm. And as I said, Ortofon can be bright, especially with solid state phono. You could talk to Ron Sutherland too. But it's a little overkill for your table/arm in terms of resolution, anyway.
So, I don't know..

Nice score. If you don't like the cartridge you can sell it to hep finance your next one. Great deal!

I own a VPI Prime, I also own a Ortofon Cadenza Bronze. Though the Bronze cartridge has very good reviews, it was not the best of combination with the VPI Prime, IMHO.
Not for technical reasons, VPI recommends cartridges with compliance > 10, and weight > 7 grams, the Bronze checks both of those boxes.

No, the reason I didn't think they were the best mates is the Bronze is a pretty warm sounding cartridge, and VPI tables are a bit on the warm side.
I found the combination too warm for my tastes.
That is why many who own VPI tables like Lyra and Dynavector cartridges, as they are more dynamic and revealing.
A Cadenza Black may be more suitable for the Prime.

Also, I'm not sure buying it to try it is a good idea either. You will be lucky to get $1200 on the used market for a Bronze. Which means you would still be out at least $400 if paying $1600.
The Bronze would make a good mate with another table, perhaps a Basis, which are more transparent than VPI tables.

That's just my $0.02.