Do you spend more on your cartridge or tone arm?

I don’t think there is a rule of thumb. It’s more about finding a synergistic balance, and I’m sure that distribution of cost varies as one goes up the range towards higher end gear (or down towards less costly gear).

FWIW: I have a Clearaudio Innovation turntable ($15k), two Clearaudio Universal 12" arms ($6700 each) and two Lyra Atlas Lambda cartridges ($14k each). So my cartridges are double the cost of my tonearms. It’s an excellent balance of gear for this particular case, but I wouldn’t generalize on it at all. One also has to take the phono-stage into account. That matters as much.

@inna it depends...

For example, the Clearaudio Concept Signature turntable with Tracer tonearm is in the $5k range or so. It’s the real deal. I wouldn’t hesitate to put a $4k cartridge on it, like a Hanna Umami Red, Dynavector Te Kaitora Rua or a Lyra Kleos. The table and arm are that good they can take advantage of it (and I already know Clearaudio arms work really well with DV and Lyra).

Synergy trumps trying to generalize about cost balance. I just think trying to do the latter is futile and can lead to sub-optimal or unhappy combinations.

@inna

phono stage must be real good for $4k cartridge, even for $2k cartridge for that matter. In my view, generally speaking, two/three times more expensive than cartridge

Hah....there you are generalizing again. Again, I say it depends. :)

I have Boulder 1108 phono-stage, retails for $21K. It supports two phono inputs, and I have two Lyra Atlas Lambda (which are now $14k, each). My setup doesn’t satisfy your generalization about it but I can’t think of a better balance for high quality. I would need a $28k-42k phono-stage by your approach.

Some time ago I had a bare Naim Superline (i.e. no PSU) for $4600 and used a Dynavector XV-1s ($5850). That was a most wonderful combination and the Superline really did the DV justice. I would recommend it and know from the Naim community forums that others do the same.

@markalarsen 

I wish I could afford one Lyra Atlas Lambda cartridge. 

Understand. I'm not trying to rub it in or make anyone envious, but it's a reasonable part of the discussion. I got lucky with a windfall, and I have the system to take advantage of them.

I don’t know. It depends on the $5K tonearm. My tonearm is $6700. I’m sure I could get more out of the Lyra with a $20K tonearm, but I assure you I am getting my money’s worth with the one I have. It's the real deal.

Like I said, it’s about balance, but generalizing on cost alone isn’t useful to me. I agree with you putting a $15k cartridge on a $1K arm isn’t optimal and poor use of funds, but that’s more extreme and not something I would consider a balanced system.

On the other end of it I see people putting $1K MM cartridges on $30K Linn LP12 Klimax turntables with $800 phono-stages and I just don’t get that.