Difference in sound using different carts when digitizing vinyl record?

Cartridge is the most important part in analog chain, your music is in the grooves on vinyl, bad cartridge can NOT extract all information from the grooves! It depends on the stylus profile first and overall cartridge design + phono stage. You will hear the difference between average cartridge and great cartridge. The worst scenario is when you digitalise vinyl with average cartridge, in this case you’d better buy high resolution digital file from the label directly. If you can not buy digital file from the label then you need some amazing cartridge to archive great digital copy from the vinyl (if the quality is important for you). But it’s also depends on your turntable, tonearm, DAC etc.

But if you will be comparing two bad cartridges you will not hear much difference between them.
So you need a great cartridge to understand what i'm talking about, hope some of the friends has it to borrow once, and then you will be disappointed about average/bad cartridges forever :) How you can live after that ? 

Definitely, there is a difference even in digital format

@wcfeil

In fact an excellent table/arm and average cartridge will outperform an average table/arm and excellent cartridge all day long.

@inna

Yes, table itself is the most important element, then arm, then cartridge. And the interaction between them all, of course.

No way. Your arm or turntable has nothing to do with vinyl grooves. If you can not get the information from the vinyl groove (with a decent stylus profile and cartridge generator) then better tonearm or better turntable motor will not help you at all.

And if you already have a decent turntable and tonearm then change an average cartridge to a decent cartridge and the difference will be more than EVER before. Cartridge is the most important, but i’m not talking about some awful turntables here or plastic tonearms. Surely the arm and turntable is also important, but not as much as the cartridge. As an average turntable we can speak about old Technics SL1200mkII for example (with it’s average $150 tonearm), but put a decent cartridge on this turntable and it will be the biggest improvement.

@wcfeil 

You're a rookie 

Yes, i am a rookie, this is my amateur system with SP-10mk2 + Reed 3p + Glanz 61 and here is some more turntables and arms that i'm using. I have enough tonearms and carts to say that the cartridge is more important (but i don't use shite tonearms, maybe this is my problem). But my collection of cartridges is pretty big to say how important is the cartridge and how big is the difference between an average cart and a decent cart. In my opinion it is such a stupid idea to use bad cartridge on a good tonearm to believe that the arm is more important. However, i've never said that a good cartridge is the most expensive one (same about tonearms or turntables). Good luck    

Yeah, me too, i know what i’m talking about.
If anyone has a reference tonearm it’s easy to compare two well matched, but different cartridge on it to make sure the better the cartridge - the better the sound, end of the story. Finally, that's the only component that touch the record. 

The OP asking for cartridges in this thread, not for the tonearms after all. To digitalise vinyl the cartridge is the most important thing first, then the DAC.  

@terry you can set up any cartridge perfectly on an average tonearm like Technics Sl1200mkII stock toneam with total cost of $150 (imagine), if you have $30 headshell with azimuth and overhand it's not a big deal to set up a cartridge. An overhand gauge (52mm) supplied by tonearm manufacturer, you can not go wrong with the settings, and it's $150 tonearm! Not a $1500 or $5000 tonearm. These type of cheap turntables works fine for 22 years for me, no problem with bearings or anything technically (definitely not the best turntable, just basic DD anyone can buy). I have much more expensive turntables and tonearms, but on cheap Technics (which is under $500 on used market) the cartridge is far more important that anything else! This is FIRST thing that user should change before changing anything else searching for a good sound from an average turntable with cheap tonearm.  

Many times i've brought some serious cartridge to a friends who owns SL1200mkII. They could not recognize it's still the same turntable, because the sound quality was like day and night even with cheap phono stages, even in the headsphones whatever. Cartridge is number one in analog chain, turntable just rotate the record.  

I've tried everything from $200 vintage MM to $5000 modern ZYX MC cartridge on Technics SL1200mkII just for curiosity. If a cartridge is well matched to whatever tonearm, then it is the biggest upgrade ever... Toneam, turntable, phono stage, some tweaks or even completely different turntable after all is next step.   

But i meant Digital Analog Converter (DAC) to listen to the digital files in good quality
and Analog to Digital Converter to digitalize records, yes

People swap cartridges more often, not a turntables @tzh21y  
We have more cartridges than turntables anyway, most of us
Some people have many tonearms, but not as much as the cartridges
This common practice is a proof of the importance of the cartridge (matched to a tonearm) as the main factor in analog. I know audiophiles with 1-5 turntables maximum, but with 30+ cartridges.