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How would you distribute percent importance for maximum sound quality among these:The stylus/cartridge - the tonearm - the turntable itself85 - 10 - 5 percent?The turntable could be further divided, but no need to if it is the smallest percentage overall. And yes, each component must meet a minimum standard to get acceptable playback. The question here is how to distribute optional upgrade or how to to target a new setup.
I didn't define the percentage dimension clearly. Please forget percent of budget. I wonder what is the contribution of each of the three components to sound quality. That is a vague criterion, so you get to define it, too.
Hey! Of course having expensive turntable and cart without properly alignment and set up is useless. Proper set up aside, if you're asking about the turntable/arm and cart themselves. Personally, especially if you're new to this, I would get the best turntable/arm combo that you could afford and use the rest of the money for cart. The reason is, if you have turntable/arm combo that can't keep steady speed and noisy then it doesn't matter how expensive your cart is, you won't get the most out of your cart. Let's say if I had $5000. I would spend $4500 on what you feel the best turntable and tonearm combo and get a $500 cart. Use that for awhile and upgrade the cart down the road. But that's just my opinion. By the way talk about cheap cart I have a $39 Audio Technica AT-VM95C on my second turntable and I have to say it is a very enjoyable cart to listen to. Buddy
Hmmmm...Critical aspects...First challenge is isolation - if your floor is a concrete slab, this is less of a problem, but if it is a suspended wooden floor - totally critical... Music is vibration, you will be playing music in the room, and you need to stop the vibration getting back into the turntable in a feedback loop.Suspended TT's have a substantial level of isolation build in... non suspended tables, means you have to build the isolation into your support platform, feet etc...This needn't be expensive! - Ikea Lack side table, standing on a concrete paver, with some absorbent sorbothan isolators under the feet can do magic, for chump change.The TT itself.... A nice reliable motor system, with low wow and flutter, could be belt, could be direct.... not particularly critical as long as the speed is consistent! - some mass in the platter helps, but it is the overall solution that countsThe TonearmYeah needs to be decent - in a perfect world, it should also have either fluid damping or electro-mechanical - but as long as it is decent, there are lots of perfectly serviceable arms!The cartridge... THE STYLUSOk the actual critical part here is the stylus and NOT the cartridge... for best results, you want the lowest possible effective mass - and the effective mass is 99% in the cantilever (forget the mythology about moving magnets vs moving coils... the bits on the end are a minor add to the effective mass - and the long bit in the middle is the vast majority!)This is where you should be spending the $ - get something that has a boron, ruby or sapphire cantilever - difference between the three acoustically is negligible.... I would choose Boron as my goto, because it is typically better value for money.What sort of cartridge - MC or MM? - well, the single thing that most affects the voicing of your cartridge is the cantilever - which has nothing to do with MC or MM.An MC cartridge is a mostly non adjustable setup - you cannot replace the stylus, and you have no substantive way of adjusting the voicing of the cartridge (yes loading has an impact but it is minor) - if you like its sound, good.An MM cartridge is an adjustable system, you can easily replace the stylus (and upgrade, downgrade, opt for a stylus designed for 78RPM records, etc...), but here is the important thing - a standard MM cartridge is highly tunable at the phono stage, as you can adjust both capacitive and resistive loading... if you find the cartridge a bit "dark" reduce the C loading, if a bit too bright raise the C loading. - With proper adjustment, a good MM with a top stylus can achieve a neutral (ie: flat) frequency response.... allowing you to reproduce what was recorded onto the record...without editting!Now if you want that MM to sound like an MC - you can tune it that way. If you want to optimise for bass, reduce the highs - that too is possible.Oh yeah while I am on the cartridge and stylus - anything with a boron or similar cantilever, will have a line contact diamond on the end - good thing! very important.... If shopping lower down the range, with aluminium cantilevers - opt for a lightweight tapered one over a straight one, opt for a line contact design diamond, in preference over an eliptical or spherical. (benefits are improved performance on worn records, reduced wear of both records and diamond, hence extended life of the needle, and more importantly the irreplaceable record!)Final comment - the cartridge/stylus must match the tonearm mass - a low mass tonearm (below 10g effective mass) will need a high compliance cartridge - that is to say one that tracks at under 1.5g as its optimum - the lower the mass of the tonearm (can get down to 4g!) the higher the compliance needed from cartridge/stylus - a 4g effective mass arm, will require a cartridge/stylus capable of 1g VTF.Current mass market is in the mid to high mass arm range - arms of 11g to 16g effective mass are typical, and suitable cartridges/styli will track around 2g.Personally - I would track down a suitable MM body without a stylus (typically for pennies, or a no longer required hand me down from family/friends) - for which a Jico SAS stylus is availble (check the Jico website) - the SAS is a world class top notch stylus - and if there is one available to fit the MM body you have - the combination will be world class (as long as it is in an appropriate, matched, arm, and properly loaded phono stage...)An arm with fluid damping has much wider latitude to fit theoretically non-matching cartridge/styli - but ultimately, even with those arms, best results will be when arm effective mass, matches the cartridge compliance. (this is where a lot of people get into trouble... the dark arts of cartridge/arm matching... it really isn't all that hard, but most people don't even know it is a thing)Phono stage:OK well, this has to match your cartridge.... no point having a MM phono stage and trying to run a low output MC through it.You can spend a bundle on these.... but:If you chose an MM cartridge, as recomended above... a MM phono sage is typically easier and cheaper to manufacture - you get very good ones for reasonable $ - and there are typically loads of used ones that are excellent out there as well.If you have a vintage 1980's or 1970's receiver or integrated, you will have an excellent phono stage built in (almost certainly).What should you pick, ideally.... well one that allows for the adjustment of the loading, so you can properly tune your cartridge. - you want at least 4 or 5 steps in both Capacitance and Resistance.... with C going from 0pf to 300pf and R going from 27k to 70k (so 2 steps below the 47k standard, and 2 steps above)Tonearm/Turntable interconnect cables....Classic TT's of the 70's and 80's all used very low capacitance cables - typically at or under 100pf - they look thin and cheap... and some people replace them with thick, "audiophile" cables.... and then wonder what happened to the sound!! (typical fancy audiophile cables end up being between 300pf and 500pf... and will kill the high end response of most MM cartridges)Perhaps the tendency to replace perfectly good TT cables, with audiophile jewelry cables, has contributed to the ongoing fad for MC's, as MC cartridges are insensitive to capacitance.... If your TT cable is already at 400pf - you have no hope of getting the C loading down to the 200pf that many MM's require.Anyway - to sum up - you need to get the COMBINATION (aka - synergy) right...Platform Isolation and vibration absorbanceArm mass / Cartridge Compliance /VTFPhono Stage and cartridge loadingGet these all tuned in and working together - and your TT will make good music
... opt for a line contact design diamond, in preference over an eliptical or spherical. (benefits are improved performance on worn records, reduced wear of both records and diamond, hence extended life of the needle, and more importantly the irreplaceable record!)
Buddy, using your budget (5k) Id buy a Technics 1200G and an Ortofon 2m Black and call it a day !
