So many great golden era DD tables out there, what do you recommend for $1000?

I paid $600 for my DP80 with plinth and DA307 tonearm, but of course that was about 8-10 years ago, and the DP80 was "broken".  Turned out to be an easy fix.  Anyway, even at $1500 a proper DP80 will compete with any belt-drive at least up to $5K.  I realize others may disagree, and I have no problem with that.  To each his own.  In my opinion, the DP80 will out-do the TT81 or PL70 but is on par with a tricked out SP10 Mk2.  I happened to like the DP80 better when I owned both, however.  TT101 would be more like competition for the DP80.

@lewm 

great the TT101 but if I have not recommended it is only because if it presents problems it is difficult to repair .. while the TT81 is very comparable to the TT101 with a few less features and fewer problems.

Outside there are several unsolved TT101 cases.... and I'm one of them.

I've lived for years with DP75 (with mineral plinth and AT-1100 tonearm). It's a very dependable and solid machine and by most accounts very similar in quality to DP80, but somewhat easier to find and at a lower price. 

I switched to PL70L II, which I much preferred over the DP75. But I attribute this mostly to the wonderful tonearm, which makes this Pioneer a great choice in your price range. I got it at HiFiDo several years ago for less than $1000, but have to assume its market value has gone up since. 

Interesting
I wonder why best groove had just the pl70 with NOT the pl70l II as edgewear appears to really like that one?

@uberwaltz

Because the PL70 is equipped with the famous MU70 engine and should be identical or derived from (if I remember correctly) to the engine mounted on the Exclusive PL 10 which is better in quality than the PL70II engine even if the written specifications do not say so.
Furthermore the MU 70 in the past was sold separately as an engine this because at Pioneer they believed it very much.