I lost track of turntables long ago, but do remember that the Technics Direct Drive tables were considered wonderful back in the day (SP-10?) Sorry, I forgot the details.
There is one for sale for $595 on one of the audio selling sites...sorry, can’t remember which one, but if I were looking, I would buy it. It needs an arm and cartridge, so you still get to choose them.
The funniest TT information I see today is Thornes tables for thousands of dollars. We sold them for $260.00, I believe, and they were BOUNCY and had some feedback issues back then. If customers are spending thousands for them today, I would guess they improved them greatly. Back then, even though they were highly rated--Linn-Sondek was considered better in those days--we never thought much of them.
(Also love that Shure is selling their tonearm for thousands these days. Back then, because they had a removable head shell, they were considered too heavy and clunky at $150.00) Straight-arms were thought to be the holy grail, but evidently no one has figured out how to do them in a way to vault them to the top of the list (yet).
Cheers!