Am I a hopeless audio snob?

What happened was you noted an objection to the appearance of the Technics G series turntables, without actually naming them, and this elicited a bevy of responses from the belt drive crowd who are typically activated when anyone mentions the possibility for denigrating a direct drive turntable like all those made by Technics. So your thread devolved into a belt drive fest. That group was further divided by Mijostyn who could not help mentioning his particular distaste for VPI. His distaste for VPI then elicited responses from a bevy of VPI lovers. And the beat goes on. I would advise you to spend a lot of time listening to various types of turntables including both direct drive and belt drive types. They do have their distinctive characteristics if you are an experienced listener. If you are not an experienced listener then you may hear no important difference between the two types. In fact, the best of both sound closest to each other. Then it depends how much you want to spend. As an aside, the technics G series turntables top out at around $4000, which you mentioned, but there are less expensive versions that can be had for far less money.

But it seems you made a purchase based on the advice of your dealer. What?

I hate this "golden toilet look" audio design.

For me it is like trade off between "golden toilet look" vs sound quality.

Turntable should look like turntable, speakers like boxes and so on.

@lewm - I would consider myself an exceptionally experienced listener. I have built my system piece by piece over the past 30 years and have journeyed through B&W, Musical Fidelity (A3cr is still a favorite), BAT, Rotel, Zu (Zu DL103 carts are a fav) Kimber, Nordost, Music hall, and the list goes on... The point I am making is that the journey is a big part of the joy of this hobby. Many steps along the way.

My system now is easily $100k plus, Dedicated listening room, Dedicated circuits. If I would have skipped these steps, I don’t think that my ear and appreciation would be developed to the point I would like to think they are. 

I have always loved the sound of AMG turntables. AMG was a machine shop in Bavaria that manufactured components for high end tables from Brinkman etc. They were owned by a father and son. Years ago, Garth with Musical Surroundings entered into an agreement with AMG to build and market their own products. Musical Surroundings had distribution for the Americas.

The father died and the son wanted to take things in a different direction, so he ended the agreement with Musical Surroundings. I was alerted of this and was able to secure one of the remaining AMG rigs that Musical Surroundings had. Since they no longer have the line, I was able to negotiate a great deal. Not anything like 50% off but a good deal. I had to jump at it.

Next, I am buying the custom HRS platform for AMG. A/B listening revealed that this is a worthy move.

AMG also make fast Mercedes Benz’s.

Your choice, like my choices, is the natural result of your past audio experience. Thus it’s very personal. I’m glad you didn’t just follow a dealer’s advice blindly, as one might have inferred. Congratulations.

so I don’t get why you started a thread based on a swipe at Technics and Japanese products in general without at least also mentioning your extensive prior experience and knowledge and that you probably never had any interest in a Technics TT. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I was in the same situation 2 yrs ago, I ask my friend what TT he can recommend, He said go VPI , clear audio, I look into it, I end up buying SME 10, I am super happy with this choice, A year later I saw uncle Kevin talking about Vpi Prime scout with blem video,  I purchased VPI tt with blem for my second system,  white color from Uncle Kevin. Happy as well.Audio is a choice choose what makes you happy, as long as there is budget.