It’s Lew M, not Lew N. I live in the US, not in the UK. The price on the Linn website is $32,800. The price of the SP1000R at Music Direct is $19,999, or something like that. The list price of both TTs does include a tonearm. So, for a US resident, there is a roughly $13K difference in price, in favor of the Technics. However, I was not aware that the price for the Linn Klimax also includes a cartridge (AND phono stage?) If the Linn price does include a phono stage, then I do stand corrected. But that does not make the price of the Linn LESS than that of the Technics. They would be about the same here in the US, unless you posit that the Linn cartridge and phono are a phenomenal value.
I don’t. use the term "aficionado" as a pejorative. If you have owned the same TT for 30 or 40 years and have upgraded it along the way at high cost, and if you defend that TT on internet websites against its critics, then the term aficionado applies, in my parlance anyway. I’ll admit to being an ESL aficionado, for example, since I have owned nothing but ESL speakers of one kind or another for more than 45 years. You could also say I am an aficionado of OTL amplifiers to drive ESLs. I also beg to differ with you on Linn owners. They are an intelligent lot who certainly do know the difference between belt-drive and direct drive.