Table/Cartridge price ratio

Price is no indicator of good sound.

Then there's the further complication that how good your cartridge sounds also depends on how good the phono stage is. I just upgraded my phono stage from the one built into a 1980s Amber to a modestly priced outboard Cambridge Audio 640p, and I never imagined that my humble little Denon DL-160 was grabbing that much sound out of the groove.

johnnyb53..i used to use a CA 640p with my dl-160, and yeah, it didn't sound bad. after reading Hdm's posts about dialing in db gain, i decided to give a phono pre, with adjustable gain and load, a shot. i was able to get a musical surroundings phonomena used for $325 on audiogon. when u dial in gain (44db on the phonomena) the sound becomes more effortless and natural sounding. my system played bright and i loaded it down from 47K to 300 ohms to tone it down. the phonomena also has an adjustment for capacitive loading. when i switched from 100pF(?) to 200pF the background became blacker and i was able to pick up more detail. i don't understand how this happened because, supposedly, MC's should be unaffected by capacitive loading.
anyway, what i'm trying to tell ya, is that your humble dl-160 can sound even better with a not so big bucks change. (u could get at least $140 for the cambridge the last time i looked here at audiogon) and maybe our dl-160's are not so humble at all....if u go over to pink fish media, you'll find that quite a few brits are using them on $2000+ tables!!

Would you get the same result from a cartridge that is in the $800 range with one that is in the $1200 range

Assuming the cartridges match the arm specs, of course the two cartridges will sound different!

As a rule, using a good cheap cartridge on a performant table yields better results than the other way round. It's simple: the engineering on a cheap TT is too poor to support the superior engineering of the cartridge.
The cheap Denons, while good performers in principle & for the money, are quite limited in application (very low compliance, output, etc).