Anyone own a Pioneer Exclusive P3 ??

Unfortanetly I cant comment on any of the other high-end turntables bespoken here above.. the P3 is the only one I have/heard.

Today I have been playing around with the setup of the P3: I fitted the Pioneer PC-1000II cartridge onto the straight tonearm, tracking force at 1,2grams and damping at two (on the lower end, manual advices from 2-4 with straight arm and PC-1000II cart) I was amazed by the sound quality: Listened to some records and was absolutely suprised that this old cart could give such a great soundquality: voices are very lively, piano sounds fluid.. that is always a good indicator for me..

This cart is unfortanetly very, very hard to find, but I is certainly worth the search!

Funny thing is; I have the original brochure for the P3, and on the pictures in the brochure, it's shown with the PC-1000II cart as well!

Willem,

I'm getting mine from hifido, a known quantity/company to me for peace of mine eventhough it's not in as good a cosmetic shape as the one on Yahoo Japan. I reckon i can fix up the minor cosmetic fault with the help of furniture maker friend. I will update when i get it later.

Jaspert:

It's the P3a with the minor blemish on the base-foot? It looks quite allright, bigger issue to me should be the fact that the rubber mat is missing, but shurely you should be able to find a suitable replacement..

I was offered that one as well, since I was on the waiting list at hifido for a P3(a).. Since I just got one from Yahoo I passed.

Congratulations again with this great piece of engineering.

I saw the one on hifido as well. It's listed as a P3a but the front and back plate just say P3 unlike the picture of the other sold one which says P3a both places. Not that it makes much difference. They're close to the same and either way it's a great machine. Not sure the rubber mat is a huge deal. I think T_bone uses a cu-180 on his anyway.
Where do these P3s get checked out/rebuilt typically? I assume at their age they need some checkup, maintanance, and possibly cap/diode changes.
I'd be interested in hearing how the transaction with hifido goes. They seem like a good source for these.

Sonofjim:
I actually think the TT on Hifido is a P3 plinth with P3a arm.. you can read on the vintageknob about the differences between the two, which are marginal btw..

Pioneer has its own servicecenter in Japan which still services all their highend units, like the P3, C3, M3, M4, M5, F3, C5, C7, M7, M8 etc. etc. etc. Any P3 should be serviced by this center before it's shipped to anywhere outside Japan, it's worth every penny!

Jaspert: May I ask: does it come with both tonearms? If not: these arms are being offered for sale every now and then on Yahoo..