Cartridges: Complete Scam?

Wow guys...wow. Allow me to sum up your replies:

randy-11: "It’s a scam"
stevecham: "It’s a scam"
knownothing: "Not a scam"
Inna: "It’s a scam"
nandric: "It’s a scam"
jmcgrogan2: "It’s a scam"
jperry: "It’s a scam"
geoffkait: "It’s a scam"

________________________
czarivey: it's NOT scam.

Scam is just a label, but in reality it's clearly YOUR choice to buy cartridge for $10k or for $250 and there are tons of sleepers in that range that will make you think HARD before going any further to upgrade.
That is to say that my AudioTechnica AT140 is one of them along with ADC type III obviously if you have original stylus on them. Many people know only expensive ones therefore going for them, but why should I care when I can have more cheaper 'supply' and let everyone else buy higher priced one? Ignorance sometimes pretty healthy and beneficial ain't that?

Why waste time with this guy ?
he clearly has no relationship with a decent dealer who in an hour or so with his table could show him what a better cartridge could do in his system
.... or not
but then it would be solved for HIM

going to be a rough planet if he never understands the joy acknowledging the law of diminishing returns and for a few hobbies like scotch, wine, fishing boats, flyrod, etc living past the break point.

imagine a consumer reports world where nobody buys a Porsche Turbo

If someone asked you: "Would I see a major improvement in sound if I upgraded from my Elac bookshelves to a pair of Magico Q3s?" You would answer, absolutely yes you would.

Not: "You have to pair them with ultra high end amps and sources."
Not: "Some people can tell the difference but not everyone..."
Not: "Wrong way of thinking..."

It's very simple: Magicos are better than Elacs. The end. Anything other than that is just useless information that doesn't serve anyone. Magicos weigh 250 lbs, can you handle them, do you have the room for them, etc and so on -- useless info, anyone can read a spec sheet and understand the possible drawbacks.

"You have to pair them with ultra high end equipment..." Why? Will they lose their superior performance capacity because they're hooked up to a more modest amp? Will the extreme engineering techniques used to eliminate resonance across the audio band turn itself off because they're running from a $5k amp as opposed to a $50k one? Will their unique drivers downgrade themselves? WHY, exactly, are you responding to a simple question with a qualifying non-answer?

So. Can someone explain WHY a $1,000 table's tonearm can't be used to mount a $2-3k cartridge? What is the technical reason? Will it fail to transmits certain frequencies, or certain voltage swings, what exactly? Do cheaper tonearms not have the capability to hold the cartridge in the right angle and apply the right amount of tracking force?

What's going on here?

My my Mr Madavid do you have it all wrong. Magico Q3s will sound absolutely awful paired with the sort of amp any normal person would use with your Elac bookshelves. In fact in 9 out of 10 Hi Fi shows Magico Q3s sound terrible because they get paired with the wrong sort of amps. 

Getting the most out of a set of Q3s is just like getting the most out of a cartridge -- it takes a lot of careful matching and time spent on ancillary supporting components. Simply dropping them in to your system may cause you great heartache (see this thread for what I mean https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/magico-s5-speaker-set-up-advice-please-tow-in-etc)

And as you probably know, I run Q3s and what I really like is when people come to my system they often say "these speakers are great, they don't sound like Magicos [do at shows]"

Oh and to your question on why a $5K tonearm with a $5K cartridge.

A $5K cartridge usually means the designer has spent extra effort in minimizing problematic resonances and other sources of distortion. Mounting this on a $1K tonearm that itself is subject to all sorts of distortions and resonances is simply throwing this benefit away. 

I could go on but that's just one small example of the constant in this hobby how a change in one component often throws up problems elsewhere in the chain