Old B&O vs. new Rega P1

Craig, try the forum at beoworld.org. There are a couple of resident experts with extensive part bin. You could also send the unit over for repair if you wish. It probably won't cost $400 to repair, but you will need to be handy, or find someone who is.

I own B&O Beogram 8000. With the original B&O cartridge the performance is ho-hum. It sounds smooth and rich, but seriously lacks detail and high frequency sparkle. I've then replaced B&O MMC 20CL with Sound Smith SMMC 20CL, and the difference is amazing. The performance with Sound Smith cartridge is very close to the Rega setup that I loaned from my friend. Rega with good MC cartridge sounds more detailed, but the difference was small, small enough so that I could forgo in favor of the convenience of automatic operation with B&O table.