Seriously, how can they justify that price? NO vinyl could ever sound so good as to warrant it, and coulkd it possibly perfom about 1,000 times better than a Garrard Zero 100?
Because the fools with their gold plated "Hi Fi quality" power cables and speaker cables as fat as your arm will happily pay it to believe in their own mind that the sound is superior to anything anyone else has ever heard...
Exactly this. The Hi-Fi press in the 80's raised this turntable to legendary status with their superlative reviews whilst the Japanese manufacturers quietly got on with more important things like not driving the platter with a manky elastic band and not making the plinth out of old fruit cartons.
Meanwhile, the upgrades started rolling in for the "golden eared" folk and suddenly an already overpriced turntable had to be spec'ed up to cost a 5 figure sum before your peers in audiophilia would respect it.
The madness continues to this day.
A better option would be to buy a 2nd hand Japanese direct drive for £100. They are all bomb proof, and they all sound great after a drop of oil on the spindle bearing and a check for play in the tonearm bearings.