How Much Is TOO MUCH for a Analog front End?

A matter of opinion, clearly.

ditto A'feil. Although it may seem counterintuitive, as the system gets better and better the differences show up more and more.

DC step, have you done many comparisons, or are you merely speculating? A $10k rig is much better, and it is the opposite,the differences become larger, not smaller.

My experience might help you and I'll pass along a couple insights along the way. For years, I had a Well-Tempered Turntable which served me, ah, well, fine. It had delicacy, enough nuance and openness that on my Crosby Quads, with a low powered ARC power amp and a serious cartridge (a Lyra Parnassus, back in the day), I was happy. I iced the system for ten years due to other interests and logistical complications, and about two years ago, when I decided to resume my hi-fi pursuits, I set up the system once again. It sounded great, surprisingly, but also suffered from the same limitations it had when i last heard it. (Limited dynamics, bass and dbs, largely due to the Quads). I decided to revamp the system, from front to back. I bought a Kuzma Reference with Triplanar, and installed the latest Lyra (Titan i). Much better bass, more dimensionality; granted the table was considerably more expensive than the WTT, so that should have been no surprise. I then got the opportunity to trade the Kuzma/Triplanar back to the dealer and take the Kuzma XL/Airline arm combo. It was a great deal, and this, a much more elaborate table/arm set-up, has amazing foundational bass and a quality like the proverbial mastertape. But, it is not easy to isolate, whereas the Kuzma Reference set-up, with its integral isolation system, was a set and forget proposition. It was also capable of being mounted on a wall shelf, unlike the bigger Kuzma, which is simply too heavy (at least for my walls). Moral of story: the less expensive table, on balance, may be better for some purposes, having less to do with the overall quality or potential of the table than with your ability to install and use it easily, and set it up in a way that gets the most performance out of the table without isolation or related problems. FWIW.

Headsnappin, yes, I've heard a $10+k SME and some VPIs in the middle price range and, of course, several Linns (in the middle). Of that experience, I'd say my TT/arm/cartridge system gave better results than half of those and was slightly less resolving than the other half.

Problems were that none of those comparisons were A-B, in my system. As a practical matter that's extremely hard to do, since few of us are set up to be reviewers, so we go listen to someone else's system or in a store and don't bring our equipment along. Still, my aural memory is pretty darn good and what I'm saying is as accurate as 99% of what you'll read here.

Proper set up of a TT is at least as important as its price point. I'd love to hear four or five TTs set up by the same tech with the same cartridges in my system (with somebody to swap things out while I sat back and relaxed). Unfortunately, that's pretty unlikely to happen, so, like most of us audiogoners, I have to move around between systems and locales to hear different TTs.

BTW, I respectfully disagree with you and feel like the difference between a $500 rig and a $3000 rig are much larger than between a $3000 rig and a $10000 rig, based on my own listening.

Dave