Does a turntable make a DRAMATIC difference?

I have a completely restored Thorens TD-125 with a Saec WE-308L tonearm and Technics EPC-U205 mkIII cartridge w/a new Jico SAS boron Stylus.  A huge plus to the phono system is being able to adjust the VTA on the fly.  I purchased a Fonolab tonearm adjustment mechanism.  Very simple cool item that took the tonearm to a new level.  Records are so varied in thickness now.  From very thin to 200 gram vinyl and adjusting from the different thicknesses makes all the difference in the world.  A record can sound dull and with a simple adjustment on the fly it becomes detailed and dynamic.  Or it can sound too bright and harsh and adjusting the toney down a hint makes it sound full and smooth and brings the bass in.  

A good preamp is also soooo important!  I had a very modified Cary Audio AE-3 phono pre in a larger chassis with a separate PS. It had the best Mundorf caps and extremely modified.  It was really good but then I picked up an old Theta Tube Preamp that I’ve converted to just a phono preamp.  I completely updated and rebuilt the PS board in it and installed a few hundred microfarad’s of Polypropylene Solan caps and a separate PS with a new toroidal power transformer and choke input and large value electrolytic and propylene caps. It takes about 3 days to fully charge and sound its best so it’s on all the time.  The phono and gain section have V-Cap TFT (teflon) caps and StealthCap Caps.  It now sounds more detailed and smother with a wider sound stage then my digital system which is fairly elaborate setup also.  Both are enjoyable but I really love and prefer the analog system now. 
 

Big areas of importance (but not all of course) are the turntable, isolation, tonearm, VTA, cartridge and type of cantilever/stylus, phono preamp and of course an excellent line stage.  I have a custom built hand-wired balanced line stage based on the Cary Audio SLP-05 but with a huge separate PS and all Mundorf EVO silver/gold/oil caps in the signal path.  My balanced output DAC feeds into the line preamp and the Theta Tube Phono preamp feed into the line stage and is converted to a balanced signal to my amps. 

VTA, tracking force and alignment are everything!   I’m pretty sure this is why some people buy an album like a 180 gram or 200 gram and give totally different reviews on the sound quality of it.  One says it sounded very dull and lacked highs and dynamics.  Another loves it and has pretty much the same table and/or turntable.  Just depends on how it’s set up.  Learning to tweak the table takes a while but with a decent system you can hear all the little changes you make.  As someone else mentioned you have to learn to do it yourself to get the most from your table.