Allocation of analog resources

@ghdprentice 

I adamantly disagree with this statement. I do understand that when you do a purchase like this it feels like a huge risk. But in reality it is not. Moving up in cost by 10x… unless you do something terribly wrong is a virtual guarantee of a jaw dropping, wonderful improvement in sound. This is the quickest and surest way to awesome sound. You cannot do it blindly… but this big of jump covers minor errors.

This is an excellent point. I should have framed my comment that I saw as risky because I had never made this significant of a jump in cost before. I would have felt so guilty spending the money if I made a wrong decision and it sounded the same. However, it did work out well beyond what I expected. 

Thanks! 

There is a used Dr. Feickert Woodpecker with a Kuzma Stogi 12" tonearm on another website for sale at $5,500. A lot of performance for the money

No relationship to seller. I just saw the ad.

@feemoore12.  
 I sure understand the feeling though. When I did this the first time I knew that I would feel like and absolute idiot if this enormous expense didn’t pan out. It would be a permanent mark against the pursuit and my judgement. 
Having done this many times now I realize the risk is not that high.

You are on the right track to be looking at table and arm as separate components. There is no right or wrong way of doing it. Also the idea of having everything be about the same level is fine and normal, but only if you don't look too closely at it. Then you find that by far the best way to go is find a table (or arm) that is a LOT better than your current arm (or table).   

You don't "lose" or "miss out" on anything doing it this way. Quite the opposite, you gain, big time.   

For example, I started with a Basis table, Graham arm and Benz Glider. After quite a few years the Glider was upgraded to Ruby. This was a nice improvement. Everything was really well balanced performance-wise.  

Until I started to realize all the inherent problems with so many connections in the signal path. One of my strongest suggestions whatever you do, avoid anything with a phono interconnect. Look for an arm with integral hard wired phono leads. Less money, better sound. 

The Basis table was upgraded to my own build of the Teres turntable. This was a nice upgrade about in line with cost. In hindsight I would say the table and arm were about equal in cost and performance.  

Then I upgraded from Graham to Origin Live Conqueror. This was huge! Game changer. Whole other league. Not even close. That arm cost more than the table. Think I cared about that? Not one bit!   

The smart move in your case I think is to plan for something like that. Look for either a really good table you can run your current arm on for a while, or a really good arm you can put on your VPI. When doing this you will find it helps a lot to ignore all the advice you will get about compliance, mass, etc etc yada yada. Focus instead on what will actually fit without modification. Because resale on your VPI will impact total cost and nobody wants to buy a drilled up VPI. VPI buyers are plug and play. You are moving beyond that but need to keep them in mind to some extent.    

This is if you want to build your own choosing from everything out there new or used. If you want to buy new it gets a lot easier. Study Origin Live website. Tremendous amount of info including their recommendations for how much to spend on each part. Having done this now since the 1970's I have to say he is right about the table and arm being far more important than the cartridge. Also what he has to say about the "value" of compliance and a lot of other technical stuff so many audiophiles focus on. Get a good arm and you can forget all that and just focus on how it sounds.  

Huge subject. Hope this helps.