With $2.5K for a purchase of a Phononstage, it can be said a Prudent investigation of the Market Place could discover a Phon' not too many years old, that could have been a Phon' with a $7Kish price tag when released to the Market Place.
I have seen phon's costing over $10K when first Marketed, where the selling price is for approx' $3K +/- . That as a Phon' will not be classed as a Old Design by any means, just an obsolete model from the Manufacturer, where the latest model might have a few differences to the Topology and Chassis Design.