Elizabeth, I obviously did misunderstand your comments about the RIAA curve and LP purchases. Sorry! I'm not sure anymore where I got the idea, perhaps I'm more delusional than I thought.
Someday I'm gonna pull my Victory along-side Tom's BMW and listen to those Lothar's. I hope he's not home when I do it. I don't want to get shot!!!
It is not my intention to say that there are no good "budget" products out there, but as TWL clarified, as a generalization better gear costs more. I'm still not sure that my system sounds better than TWL's though.
Everybody likes different gear and different sound, that doesn't make the other person wrong (unless of course, they disagree with me). :^)
The last question Elizabeth asks though is a very improtant one, but maybe not one to be dealt with on AudiogoN!