I suggest that you spend most on the turntable, a third of that on the tonearm, and much less on the cartridge. I did it the other way around, against expert advice, and ended up spending much more than necessary.
Thing is, turntables and tonearms don’t wear out. Cartridges are positively ephemeral by comparison. Also, no matter how good your cartridge is, it must be properly oriented and properly secured and properly adjusted to do its job. Otherwise that fine cartridge is a total waste. What orients and secures any cartridge is the tonearm.
Get used to setting up a cartridge in your new tonearm. Practice with disposable stuff. A valuable cartridge is probably more fragile, so practicing with that is a bad idea - more costly to damage, more likely to damage. Set-up is really, really important, because a well set-up front end will out-perform something poorly set up, even if it’s worth several times as much. Ask me how I know.
I suggest that you look into small boutique brands like Nottingham Analogue (turntables). The money goes into the product, not advertising. For a tonearm, consider the Trans-Fi Terminator air bearing, probably the best value in high end at $1000. I use two, one for each turntable.
And good luck!
Thing is, turntables and tonearms don’t wear out. Cartridges are positively ephemeral by comparison. Also, no matter how good your cartridge is, it must be properly oriented and properly secured and properly adjusted to do its job. Otherwise that fine cartridge is a total waste. What orients and secures any cartridge is the tonearm.
Get used to setting up a cartridge in your new tonearm. Practice with disposable stuff. A valuable cartridge is probably more fragile, so practicing with that is a bad idea - more costly to damage, more likely to damage. Set-up is really, really important, because a well set-up front end will out-perform something poorly set up, even if it’s worth several times as much. Ask me how I know.
I suggest that you look into small boutique brands like Nottingham Analogue (turntables). The money goes into the product, not advertising. For a tonearm, consider the Trans-Fi Terminator air bearing, probably the best value in high end at $1000. I use two, one for each turntable.
And good luck!