A lot of great table's to be had for less than $1k brand new and even less if sought on the 2nd hand market
Vinyl is making a comeback and new pressing's are constantly coming out as well as original pressing's finding their way into the "used" market, i'm up to about 300 title's with the majority being previously enjoyed, about 75/25 ratio of old > new
My TT was scored 2nd hand and i have modified it to improve it's sonic's and TBH for what i have invested in it i am pleased, my RCM (record cleaning machine) cost more than my TT with mod's! lol
Rega, Project, MusicHall, ClearAudio (to name a few) all make great product's for the price and most of them include the stylus/cartridge so it's just a plug & play thing! Going vintage can save you some scratch but be prepared for anything because of that, i went 2nd hand vintage and have been lucky so far
It's amazing the effect the enviroment can have on sound reproduction! Glad you found an economical AND effective "fix" for your system
My Polk's have something similar on the bottom of their feet, not silicone but still, i would however like to spike the feet but i can't justify the cost of the disc's ATM
I have the spike's, but a set of disc's is like $40/speaker