Has anybody tried the Reed 3P?

Sarcher,
Not yet. I did double check to make sure it was actually ordered and indeed it was. Production seems to take a while. I have a Mint tractor specially made for the 12" version ready to go. It seems like orderring any specialty audio product requires a great deal of patience. Still waiting on an Audio Desk cleaner to become available as well. I think both should be worth the wait.

I have a 12" 3P on order. From what I understand the only thing affected by azimuth adjustment on this arm, albeit slightly, is VTA. Now I can tell you in my experience adjusting VTA is no big deal. I'll be happy to post my impressions when I have this finally set up but as of now I'm not too concerned. The Talea is another arm with azimuth on the fly, also not at the headshell, and I haven't heard much debate on that so far. Mountain from a molehill? I'll find out soon enough but I'm not too worried. The other thing to consider here is the bearing on the 3P which is different from the other Reeds and should be a significant advancement.

Nandric,
That sounds like a great plan. If the on the fly is only fine tuning I would guess the other concerns are almost a nonissue. I'll have to admit I've never been one to agonize over azimuth. I usually get it close and just go with it. This arm will make it easy to see the effect of small changes. It may turn me to an azimuth snob. We'll see.

After some delay, my 12" 3P is here. Mine is in the cocobolo/ruthenium finish. It's a beautiful site to behold. One of the prettiest tonearms I've ever seen. Worth the wait on that ruthenium coating.

I've only had a few mornings with the arm so far but performance looks to be on a reference level as well. Currently I have a Benz LP-s mounted and it controls the cartridge beautifully. I have a couple other high end arms that met their match with the LP-s and couldn't keep it from jumping out of the groove. No such problem here. I really don't know if the LP-s is the ideal match for this arm but it's sounding great and I can finally use this high end cartridge that previously had been set aside.

I'd love to hear impressions from others as well as preferred cartridge matches. I'm not the most apt reviewer. Suffice it to say so far I really love this arm.

Both arms are well engineered. The 312 s is very easy to set up as I'm sure you know. The lack of a slotted head shell has it's downside too though especially if you want to use a Mint tractor which has to be cartridge specific. The lack of VTA on the fly adjustment is also a slight knock on the SME. It's performance with the PC-1 Supreme is hard to fault but it is one of the arms that had trouble with the LP-s. To be fair, I didn't add the accessory counter weight which would have allowed the counter weight assembly to be moved closer to the pivot and may have stabilized things. I knew the Reed was on the way so waited for it.

The Reed certainly wins the beauty contest.(I do like the more industrial finish of the SME too though). It handles the LP-s right out of the box. In addition to VTA on the fly, azimuth on the fly( which I haven't messed with yet) makes tweaking much easier. I'm still getting this arm dialed in but it's on par with the SME already.

The "new toy" factor is in effect currently but if I could only keep one arm it would be the 3P. I'm fortunate to have them both though and don't foresee parting with either one.

I can only say I really enjoy my 3P (12 inch cocobola). I use it with the Benz LP-s. Not sure if feedback on that combination helps anyone but it's one of the best I have. I find the 3P to be a beautiful arm and a joy to use. It's actually the only one I have that was able to control the LP-s which IMO is way too heavy for its compliance. Once you keep the stylus in the groove the cartridge really sounds great though. In this price range there are many great arms out there (Kuzma 4 point for one). Anyone who goes for the 3P won't regret it IMO. (Still, I'd love a 4 point in addition). V-12? Lots of great arms out there.