FWIW, I think you've optimized your $1800 quite wisely.
KAB 1200 vs. everything else.
A few weeks back I asked Kevin of KAB USA what price level a fully modded 1200 competes with, and he thought somewhere in the 4500-5000 dollar price range. His reasoning was that the business concentrates on romantic reproduction rather than technical reproduction. It sounded plausible, but I am pretty new to analog playback. What do you think of this claim--Cheers