@rdk777 It does look like you thoroughly enjoy your system as a means to experience your Vinyl collection, and are now aware that machining of materials which are critical to enable this to happen are items that will always appreciate in cost, which is what you are witnessing. It is this impact on the market values that allow for good returns on used sale items.
A friend recently had a substantial amount of parts produced for their New Tonearm design, as a means to control escalating costs on later produced production runs.
ln relation to your mentioned equipment, I have witnessed a reasonable amount of criticisms of equipment on the Analog Section of this forum, especially equipment that is quite capable of replaying recorded music in a manner that is very comprehensible and able to be enjoyed as a very satisfactory experience by the listener.
It is not uncommon to see the challenges come in from the flanks, presented by a limited number of Forum users, where there is to come worthless digs about the equipment/choices made by a forum member.
The supporting others in their enjoyment of experiencing replays of recorded music as an Vinyl LP medium, seems very low on the schedule of priorities for this limited number of members even though is does seem this idea can surface occasionally as a smoke screen.
Every so often such types who present themselves in such a manner end up in exchanges that are only to be futile and of very little use to any individual looking in at the present or as a visitor in the future. There seems to be a periodical need to offer only what is on the verge of being unkind, or at the least, only offering the anti-thesis of being helpful, what ever that is to be described as.
Once more, where is the unadulterated enjoyment of replaying recorded music to be found, where such a attitude, is at the surface.
Am I a innocent, no I am not, I have seen quite a few acts of the anti-thesis of being helpful, of which my response to such content, has been very real as a result of being observant of what is manifesting.
I have seen with my own eyes the writings of certain types, who in my interpretation have been seen to be quite harsh to an individual who is sharing their own personal experience of equipment in use, (not hearsay, ideas or questionable prejudices based on contempt prior to investigation). There does seem to be a attitude developed between a few, that if the individual is not with the experience of having heard devices of a substantial value in a substantial value system, this is good reason to discount an assessment shared.
Once more, where is the unadulterated enjoyment of replaying recorded music to be found, where such a attitude is at the surface.
I have through using this forum, come to develop a thick skin and wrecking ball attitude toward certain regular contributors'.
It is not difficult to discover there is an inconsistency from certain contributors in in what is posted, the need to be the authority status is seemingly standout as the underlying ambition/agenda. The ideas spieled out one day within a post as not of any value, are able to be discovered on another day as the accepted method. Simple searches within the forum has proved this to be the case on a regular occasion.
When the time seems right for me, it is a case of 'let that wrecking ball swing' and come what may, that wrecking ball when very rarely used, has a habit of creating a silence.