P2 or P3

There are reasons that a modded RB250 can better a modded RB300.Firstly the RB250 still has bearings on both sides unlike the RB300 where they have removed 1 bearing to put a seemingly improved Bias adjuster in.The RB250 stem is brass as opposed to steel in the RB250.The spring mechanism in the RB300 Bias adjuster resonates noticeably.You apparantly disengage it by sliding it all the way up to 3 or remove it altogether.Once you have added a decent(Origin) counterweight to the RB250 instead of the stock plastic one it becomes a great arm.The Shure has better bandwidth and should be the best cartridge to use.A rewire(after counterweight mod) will make a modded RB250 challenge Rega's best arms i.e the RB900-1000 I did much enquiry on this.Get the Planar 2 with the glass platter,you can get an acrylic platter upgrade for it.Look up further mods here and on Vonyl Asylum.stefanl

Sorry, I meant to say the RB250 has a brass stem and a plastic stub,whereas the RB300 has a steel stem and steel stub in their stock form.You get rid of the plastic stub on the RB250,replacing it with the metal counterweight of your choice,there are many available,the Origin one from England has generally been regarded as the best,due to the way it is decoupled-do some research on this.Vinyl Asylum has lots of info.stefanl

The motor upgrade has been said to be noticable but not that great a leap as an upgrade,I think it has more to do with pitch stability problems with the Planar 2 and 3 generally,which can be cured by a couple of lengths of electrical tape around the plastic hub the platter sits on and/or adding a power conditioner such as the one from Heed Audio.The Planar 2 might be $450-500 new and quite cheap privately or on ebay etc.-luck.The way to go is to play without a mat.i.e I have 15mm acrylic platter that I can use.Mats could be used for adjusting height(VTA)if necessary-play by ear.stefanl

There are several firms that offer rewires for Regas,I think that the best one is the one piece complete from Eclectic Audio in Germany.Others like the Origin Live from England are two piece,meaning you can just replace the internal wiring of the arm and leave the connect to the arm(replace later).The complete one piece is best because there is no interrupt from the cartridge clip to the RCA plug.The advantage in having a completely modded RB250(counterweight,complete rewire)is that you can move this on to a better table when you upgrade and it is used on some really good decks.stefanl