Turntable prices. Is my mind going?

On the subject, I don't know how a 10K (20, 50, 100, etc.) turntable can be better than a 2K turntable. Needle, yes, I can see the needle making a big difference. But arm, platter, plinth, etc. just all do a very simple job.

This doesn't mean that I think that people who spend 10s of thousands on a turntable are snobs or make bad decisions. All it means I don't know.

Maybe some day I will...

At least you admit that you "don't know". That's a good place to start, rather than to think that if it's cheaper, it must be as good or better. as some do.  There's a great line from the movie "A Thousand Clowns", which came out in the early 60s and is one of my favorites.  Martin Balsam plays financially successful older brother to Jason Robards who plays a sort of devil-may-care beatnik type who is financially careless at best. (There were Beatniks in the 50s and early 60s.)  The two brothers are having an argument about life philosophies, and Martin Balsam says to Jason Robards, with irony, "I get it. If I'm so smart, why aren't I poor?"  The take home lesson for audiophiles being sometimes there is a correlation between cost and quality, but not all the time.

The take home lesson for audiophiles being sometimes there is a correlation between cost and quality, but not all the time.

There is for sure a non linear correlation between price tags (which are not cost) and design quality.. Not linear or as you said "not all the time".

But there is no correlation save a very loose one between acoustic perception of the system/room S.Q. and the price tags of the gear for many reasons linked to acoustics and psychoacoustics among others...

The most costly piece of gear is the room and it is the forgotten piece when audiophile spoke about S.Q. in their non dedicated room (living room ) . Or in a room with only a few panels... 😊

On a '"cost-per-gram" comparison nothing beats the $16K Grado Epoch cartridge!

Mahgister, Perhaps I misunderstand you but your agenda seems to be that one can make cheap gear sound as good as or better than very expensive gear, if one is possessed of a certain wisdom regarding room acoustics and other more superficial tweaks. I think one needs to have both kinds of skill, the skill to spend money (what exactly is worth the expenditure and what is not) and the skill to modify the room and judiciously apply a few tweaks (perhaps) to maximize the listening experience, which in the end is always going to be judged subjectively. But you also cannot turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.