Why do better MC cartridges cost a fortune?

Even so, any decent cd player will be superior. Turntables are just money spinners for the trade, and if you are like me and you like mechanical engineering, they are also nice toys.

We are not talking about cd players, you might've lost the direction a little bit.

inna,

Assigning relative cost structures to equipment is ludicrous. Results vary widely regardless of price and are instead tied to educated equipment matching and proper setup, especially with turntables, tonearms, cartridges, and phono stages.

Dave 

One does not contradict another. What you said is obvious and that's why I didn't even mention it.
Yes, I hear enough people putting $3k cartridges on $3k turntables and playing them thru $2k phono. This will not be bad, this will be stupid.

Everything is stupid at its extreme. These threads you start seem to be aimed at generating contempt toward those that can/do spend a lot of money on audio.

I, like many here, don't have that kind of money but have instead spent many years and countless hours assembling an audio system that is not defined by such identity bias.  Maybe start some threads on how that is done...

Dave