Turntable prices. Is my mind going?

For $5K or less you can have 95% of the performance of those hyper-expensive behemoths.  And I am not sure you would ever hear the 5% difference.

Makes one wonder if articles like the one PT is referring to actually

deflect more people from the pursuit than they attract?

The world is filled with all different sorts of high-priced luxury products. I don't understand why that would trouble anyone.

There are at present living in the USA about a thousand billionaires. The High End business caters to that social class. 

There is a nice TechDAS Air Force One TT here on Audiogon. $74K marked down from $169K. Now that's what I call a High End bargain!