Good question. The answer depends on your means, preferences, and sensitivity. Let’s say you have a really expensive (for you) $5K turntable and you love music and a good system and your income doubles? That $10,000 table looks more enticing and reasonable.
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Also, folks like to say is it worth it? Is it 10% better? A ridiculous and relative thing. However, the high end is really competitive on sound, and any company producing $50K or $100K tables (and is in business for more than ten years) is going to compare well with the competitions at that level. Anything I would say above the $5K range will have a lot of comparisons with competition as is not a hype... table.
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Also high end companies use research to advance the art as far as possible to their flagship and then let what they have learned trickle down. That is how a good high end company works. Research leads. This is why it is usually best to review the best the company can do to see if you like their house sound... then ratchet back to what you can afford now. Then in the future, as your income and rest of the the system gets better... you can move up the chain.
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Having said this. I used to own a VPI Aries table and upgraded my Phono stage... (these things get a LOT better with cost) to the Audio Research Reference 3 and each time benefited greatly. I then swapped out my VPI for a new high end Linn LP12... which I assure you is cost competitive with other tables at this level. While my digital end cost $41K my analog end is a bit less... it definitely bests the digital end... although they are both fantastic. There are a lot of great tables out there in the $20K range. I like my new table as it is more balanced and musical than my VPI. But they both make great tables... so does SME, etc.
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I have heard a number of expensive tables...Yes, they get better with price. Audibly better. And for the same price will beat an appropriately purchased digital end.
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I have been doing this for fifty years, and over that time my income has risen, the tables have gone from $200, $500, $2000, to $5,000, and $21K... and each time the difference was greater than the last... but behind the scenes my other equipment was changing to support the front end.
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So, I think the answer is personal for each person, given their tastes, income, and values. But if you have the interest and means there really isn’t any end until you get into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know some folks that have the means to buy whatever they want.
.
Also, folks like to say is it worth it? Is it 10% better? A ridiculous and relative thing. However, the high end is really competitive on sound, and any company producing $50K or $100K tables (and is in business for more than ten years) is going to compare well with the competitions at that level. Anything I would say above the $5K range will have a lot of comparisons with competition as is not a hype... table.
.
Also high end companies use research to advance the art as far as possible to their flagship and then let what they have learned trickle down. That is how a good high end company works. Research leads. This is why it is usually best to review the best the company can do to see if you like their house sound... then ratchet back to what you can afford now. Then in the future, as your income and rest of the the system gets better... you can move up the chain.
.
Having said this. I used to own a VPI Aries table and upgraded my Phono stage... (these things get a LOT better with cost) to the Audio Research Reference 3 and each time benefited greatly. I then swapped out my VPI for a new high end Linn LP12... which I assure you is cost competitive with other tables at this level. While my digital end cost $41K my analog end is a bit less... it definitely bests the digital end... although they are both fantastic. There are a lot of great tables out there in the $20K range. I like my new table as it is more balanced and musical than my VPI. But they both make great tables... so does SME, etc.
.
I have heard a number of expensive tables...Yes, they get better with price. Audibly better. And for the same price will beat an appropriately purchased digital end.
.
I have been doing this for fifty years, and over that time my income has risen, the tables have gone from $200, $500, $2000, to $5,000, and $21K... and each time the difference was greater than the last... but behind the scenes my other equipment was changing to support the front end.
.
So, I think the answer is personal for each person, given their tastes, income, and values. But if you have the interest and means there really isn’t any end until you get into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know some folks that have the means to buy whatever they want.