Do I buy an upscale TT?

@pennfootball71 

What a ridiculous statement! You do not need to spend $50,000 on a turntable to get great sound

A turntable should not add ANYTHING to the sound quality. The most important attributes a turntable can have are lack of noise, isolation from the outside world, pitch consistency and speed accuracy. Pitch consistency requires unwavering speed and a very flat record. So, the turntable must be able to clamp the record flat. 

Going to another idler drive will do absolutely nothing for you. Remember, the sound of your friend's system was due in the most part to his Speaker/room combination not the turntable. You already have a fine set up with one exception, the Garrard. @clearthinker is absolutely right. Idler wheel drive is an antiquated design. The noise and rumble are legion. Each bearing and contact point adds to the symphony and on top of that their pitch consistency is poor. The attraction to these turntables is purely psychological. Like clearthinker I sold my last idler wheel drive table in 1967, never to look back.

On the bright side there are meaningful improvements you can make by going to a quieter, more accurate table with isolation and either vacuum or reflex clamping. Sota is out because your arm will not fit. SME is a possibility if you can find one you can afford. The Kuzma Ref 2 is an excellent choice and in your price bracket! Get a good dust cover for it and you are in business. You will notice my blacker backgrounds and a realness to the music missing in setups with poor pitch consistency. Wavering pitch kills the illusion that you might be listening to a real performance. 

I would expect anybody who is introduced to a System for the first time, in a home environment, where the system has been carefully put together to get the best from the sources selected to be used, will be impressed with the demonstration offered.

It does not take a $50K TT to seriously impress in such a set up, a lesser valued TT, can I am sure offer a great performance.

I in the past and mainly prior to covid times, had travelled a Four Hundred Mile round trip to attend a HiFi Clubs periodical event, where the meeting place has a resident £200 000+ system.

The Speakers and Amplification alone retail at £140K.

The loom is said to be near £20K. 

The main attraction is to get to hear devices brought by others slotted into the system, to see how they perform in such Hi End Company.

Vinyl and Speakers are the biggy, with Digital being the less frequent.

I have heard modified TT's and Tonearms costing a £1000 as donors prior to being modified, hold their own alongside TT > Tonearm > Cart's costing 20-30 time more as a retail price.

No Different with Phonostages, the resident Phon' is a £10K retail price, and it isknown this model quite happily competes with Phon's upto twice its value.

I have witnessed the resident Phon' matched with the homebuilt Phon' Designs, or  even bettered, if a certain range of a frequency is ones most preferred. The home built designs costing approx' £1500 - 2K, produced by adept EE's, can really shine out for the attractiveness they offer.

I have also heard these home produced Phon's make Commercial products sound very inferior regularly, that are 2.5-4 times the price.

As advice for the OP, I would suggest continuance of enjoying the system that has been produced.

Whilst enjoying what is already in place, I would suggest attempting to experience other systems, whether personal owned or from a commercial environment.

There are experiences to be had that can be of equal impression to the friends system, and possibly achievable for substantially less monies, if wanted to be pursued.

Keep a open mind, Branded Items are produced with tight financial constraints, and can quite easily be placed in the more expensive end of the market, especially if aesthetic appearance has been the heaviest of impact on the overhead to produce.

The DIY Market is not so constrained and a lot can be offered for not too much, the end aesthetic might be a little robust but 'hey ho', it is easily overlooked if one does not do their listening with their eyes. Bear in mind the TT's you are focusing on are coming from this background, and is possibly evolved into a cottage industry, with a High Mark Up on a product, due to a small turnover of sales.   

I sort of chuckle when I read some of the stratospheric cost figures that got tossed out here for sound reproduction systems. Personally, I'd take that same "budget" and attend more *live* music events, where the sound is, well, the sound you're trying to replicate in your room. I'm fortunate enough to live in an area that supports a wide range of live musical performances, so I get my fill of classical, jazz, and rock performances--these are my true "reference" system.

OP  if you have the money go for it.