For what it is worth, I enjoy my VPI and Hana cartridge a lot. I did have a Tavish Adagio phono stage and it was good, but surprisingly my new McIntosh preamp has a better sounding phono stage, so I sold the Tavish.
That said, if you have a good enough phono stage or a higher end preamp with a decent phono stage you don't have to buy everything at once and can take your time to build it up. That approach also has the benefit of of hearing each component on its own merits in your system to be sure you are getting your money's worth out of each piece.