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Upgrades for Rega P3. Worth it?

Good afternoon, all. Have been considering various upgrades to my Rega P3 and wondering if anyone could share their own experiences with this. In particular, looking for real advice on whether certain upgrades were worthwhile and/or had an observable benefit to sound quality to people who've done them.

I currently have a P3 with an Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge, Clearaudio counterweight, and Pro-ject Tube Box SE II phono stage. Potential upgrades I have considered:
Rega TT PSU power supply,
Groovetracer (or other) subplatter,
Groovetracer (or other) acrylic platter (vs. stock glass),
Phono cartridge replacement

Are any of these really worth doing?
nichomoff
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
5,112 posts
 
You can upgrade again and again only to find that the money you spent could have bought you a better table.
williewonka
1,826 posts
 
Stringreen - agreed - many times I've questioned my approach.

Nickomoff, I think there are two parts to your questions...
1. Will the upgrades be beneficial
2. Is it worth upgrading a P3

With me, I tweak when I believe the benefit outweighs the cost - trouble with my tt is, the cost of the tweeks has reached the price of a VPI scout. But in my defence it has been spread over 20 years :-)

Then there's the sense of upgrade-achievement :-)

But back to the original question - of those upgrades listed - the sub-platter and platter are definitely worth while.

Another worthwhile upgrade is the Cardas one-piece rewire kit which will allow the improvements made by the sub platter/platter upgrades to be more noticeable.

Replacing the cartridge will change the sound, but opting for the other upgrades will allow your existing cartridge to really strut it's stuff :-)

You've heard from both camps and each has it's merits

Hope you find the solution that brings you much musical enjoyment
audiosens
89 posts
 
I up grade my REGA RP6 with the "Achromat", and it is a good investement, but not for the REGA white belt, the Black one has a better timuing on my RP6.  On the RP8 there are (2) White belts, that are more expensive to replace, that is why, I keep my RP6 and up grade it.  My next step would be the Groovetracer counterweight. Is there any video for all the installation steps to the set up ?
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