Is there usually a dramatic difference between $5k and $10k cartridges ?

Kiseki Purple Heart is highly thought of cartridge among those in the know. Beyond my reach, or the capability of my phono stage.

I started out with a Pickering in a Garard when I was in high school. That was $50.

I moved up to a Stanton on a Dual 1229 in college.

Next was a Koetsu on a Sumiko MMT on a VPI HW MK II. This retailed at the time for about $900 at the time I believe.

I bought a Benz Micro as an alternate and back up. About $800. I’m selling it if anyone is interested.

I believed in the law of diminishing returns and thought that was it. But I was gifted a Koetsu Onyx, and that was a big jump. That’s $9,900 retail.

I bought a rosewood signature second hand for $1,100.00 as a backup. Very silky, not as much oomph on the bottom, great for solo and concerto classical. 

I bought a Koetsu Leopard. $11,000 retail. I paid nowhere near that. It sounds different from the Onyx. It does the bottom end better than the onyx, and it has more of an excitingly dynamic sound. The Onyx does most everything else better, it’s a smoother more natural sound.

So the answer is, overall, yes.

The answer is yes but usually with a highly transparent audio chain. 

$30k table, $15k arm, $25k phono stage and you may be ready for $10k cartridge. Or perhaps it is $40k table and $10k arm. Whatever. And don't forget about tonearm cable, it is the most important cable in the entire chain. Oh, and motor controller for the table. That would be excellent though still not top of the line analogue front end.

OP,

I agree that this proportion, in general, makes the most sense.

That is about what I have and am waiting to for the right time to make the jump.

However, a couple of my friends have put a $12K cartridge on a ~ $10K table / arm and ~$10K phono stage. The difference was very amazing... of course they had very high quality speakers / preamp / amp. So, it is just like the rest of high end audio... there are rules of thumb that sometimes can be broken.

In general, I have found if you have all really great components... sometimes you can drop in something of much greater or lessor value and the outcome is surprisingly good. But I wouldn’t build systems like this. You always want to put the odds on your side.