Turntable versus tonearm versus cartridge: which is MOST important?

though I realize not everyone here will agree, and most do agree that "everything matters", I strongly believe that the areas of analogue reproduction involving the conversions of mechanical to electrical information, and vice versa, are the likeliest areas to create changes in  perceived sound, ie, tonearm/cartridge/turntable, and speakers/room...my experience also dictates what Millercarbon says above, you want the cartridge to get everything from the groove but nothing from the outside world, so a good cartridge w a great arm and table usually surpasses a great cartridge with a lesser table and arm....

This makes more sense:

Take the $500 for the cartridge/turntable and order a nice bottle of wine.

Then take the $10k and buy a $4k turntable, a $4k tonearm and a $2k cartridge.

I didn't say it was the right answer...just that it made more sense.

sandthemall, if sense had anything to do with this none of us would be here.

You can attempt to disregard the "everything matters" argument but it doesn't make it less pertinent, and trying to use price as the only criteria
may not be the best way forward when asking "which is more important" (which is not too far removed from "which is better") question, is probably not the question to ask in the first place.  You see experienced and knowledgeable people above give council while trying to work around the inevitable truth that every piece or interactions between pieces in the signal path is a potential bottleneck.  I just watched a video with VPI's Harry and Matt Weisfeld, and they both had remarked about how good a $50 Audio-Technica cartridge (they didn't say which one, so I would say it's the AT95E) sounded on their $20k HW-40 table; to be clear, they didn't advise that and recommended higher quality carts, but the point was made that the associated equipment allowed a modest cartridge to shine regardless of the price, because everything else stayed out of the way.