How important is the tonearm?

I am with Stanwal!

It is my firm belief that the arm matters more than the cartridge

But I disagree with the other poster's statement of

The tonearm's mass should be low as possible to avoid unnecessary wear on the grooves.

I will bet all I have that a cartridge with low compliance will not sound as good when installed to low mass tonearm compared to a high mass tonearm. Why? Because it is designed with highmass tonearm in mind. So not all tonearm should have low mass. It depends on the application/cart being use. Besides, VTF dictates the force that the groove "feels" from the stylus not the tonearm mass.

If I am the one shopping for tonearms, I will buy the best that I can afford and be done with it.

The arm should be somewhere near the table in value. With a $5,000 table, a $500 arm just does not make sense. And with a $3,000 cart?
Anyway I do not have an answer. This is confusing. If you bought such an expensive table, and cart.. why don't you have the dealer offer advice?
Was this an estate sale or something?
Anyway, the arm I would buy is a SME 309, with the thought of upgrading later.. to a V series. but that is not the arm you should buy..

Amandarae" what I should have said is that most designers try to keep The tonearm's mass has low as possible to avoid unnecessary wear on the grooves..

Actually, the mass of the arm has very little if any effect on groove wear and designers do not attempt to keep it as low as possible. The mass of todays arms is higher than it was in the 70s in general. Something like the Transcripters VESTIGIAL arm with its mass of 3 grams or less would be laughed at today. The SME 3 arm had a mass of something like 4.5 grams, the 5 is 12 or 13. Low compliance cartridges will not work well in low mass arms in general. The critical factor in groove wear is the shape and polish on the stylus. Long ago there was an experiment in which an LP was played several hundred times tracking at 3.5 grams with a high quality stylus; there was no wear when it was examined under a microscope. Badly polished styluses with irregular shape are the most danger to grooves. I remember it the 70s HIFI News had a cover showing the magnified stylus of a group of top cartridges; many were obviously misshapen. I don't know what todays would look like; better I hope, given current prices.

Scipo said

... most designers try to keep The tonearm's mass has low as possible to avoid unnecessary wear on the grooves.

I do not agree with that statement. What does tonearm mass have to do with tracking force, in and of itself? Tonearm mass is a the main determinant of resonance. Is there a difference in groove wear if the same cartridge was mounted on a Grace 707 at 7g and an Origin Live Silver at 14g, assuming that both were adjusted for 2g or tracking force?