Tonearms: Ripoff?

@madavido you clearly have the wherewithal to purchase an inexpensive tonearm to go with your TA table.  Spring for a Jelco and judge for yourself.  I’d buy an SME V in a heartbeat if I had the cash and the right table to pair with it, and there’s lots of those. 

Hyperbole... Making overblown statements.                      
"$12,000 one record to play on $100 equipment" I would guess chakster is perhaps physically older, but has a mental age of 15 years old?  He says he has "6 first class tonearms and about 20 cartridges' Does that translate into the reality he has two useful turntable arms and maybe 3 working cartridges?               
For the 'record', I wrote earlier I own and use a Rega P5 with a Benz Glider cart, and a Kuzma Stabi/Stogi S with a Dynavector 17D3 cartridge in the main system. The bedroom system has a Dual Golden One with a Dynavector Ruby 23 cartridge.                
Maybe if the chak would list his half dozen turntable arms.. plus the twenty cartridges, we can compare notes? Instead of whining about all the 'Haves' who just ruin everything for the lesser mere mortals like us.

@elizabeth My choice of arms and cartridges has been listed here many times in different threads even with pictures, everyone who read this section of the forum is well know what i’m using and what i like when it comes to cartridges and tonearms. Even earlier in this thread i have described my philosophy (of choosing equipment). You have nothing special in your system, just good modern high-end as i can see, also you don’t use $50k tonearms and $20k cartridges, so you’re "normal", that’s good news.

I know people who can buy $12 000 record in VG condition to play on $100 turntable. I know many record collectors from all over the world, the rarity of the record is much more important for them than equipment. $300 for a rare 45 is an average price for them on auction or privately, but the "best" equipment they got is old SL1200mk2 with some worn conical styli (all for $300 on used market) connected to cheap dj mixer and a pair of crappy active monitors or average speakers. The value of their record collection is over million dollars, they don’t care about equipment, they are all about the music, believe it or not. Some of them are living in Japan where it’s much easier to find and buy some amazing audio equipment, but they don’t care. I know what i’m talking about, it’s not a fantasy.

At the same time the majority of the rich audiophiles with the most expensive systems are playin utterly bad music, and what the dealers playin at the high-end shows is rubbish, you can go from one showroom to another and all you can hear will be Diana Krall (same song). The new trend is to play some awful electronic music. Some of those elitist audiophiles have no taste as i said. Some of the most expensive modern equipment is simply the uglies design ever, so the designers have no taste too. The prices are insane.

Well, this is my private opinion, not to offend anyone.

+1
rauliruegas8,955 posts11-05-2018 5:03pmDear @madavid0: What needs a good cartridge from the tonearm?:

- pretty decent bearing ( it does not needs the " hardest " one. ) design.
- very well damped
- first rate (silver ) internal wiring with very best ( silver ) female cartridge connectors.
- accurate and user friendly cartridge/tonearm protractor.
- precise VTA/SRA/VTF, scating and AZ mechanisms
- non-unipivot design.

OP
 Rauliruegas nicely answered your question.  
The first few items he mentioned remove things like vibration (damped tube ) and heat (bearing ) and so allow for clearer sound (wiring/precise setting) and more consistent playback over the years. 

Like most  everything in this hobby it's a question of improving the weakest link. If you have a high end table and cartridge you'll hear more improvements from a better tonearm than if the other parts are so so. 
Another variable is that some cartridges need higher or lower mass tonearms. Audio dealer can help with all that. 
Good luck!