"House sound" of VPI, Clearaudio, Rega, MH, etc.

Thanks for the comments Elevick and Jaybo. I was hoping a few more forumites could chime in about the other brands. Clearaudio vs VPI? VPI vs Rega?
Thanks in advance.

Piedpiper: I'm targeting up to roughly $3k for table and cartridge and I prefer used. I might bump that up if I fall in love w/ a MC pickup because then I'd need an outboard phono preamp. And, who knows - I haven't heard the phone stage of my unit yet. It may be substandard (Parasound P23). I certainly don't mind coming in below that amount either. I've already heard the Rega P3-24 and think I could live with it if moving upstream is diminishing returns.
I was actually hoping there's a similarity in sound across all offerings w/in a manufacturers line. Does the Rega P7 and P5 (both of which I'm considering but which I can't easily audition) sound like the P3-24? Similarly, does the Clearaudio performance table (unable to audition) sound like an improved version of the Marantz table (which I have heard) which they make? I haven't been able to hear a VPI deck of any flavor and would very much like to. How do VPIs sound relative to Rega/Clearaudio, etc. I thought perhaps there might be a house sound to a line which could be generalized here.
It's looking like if I venture beyond the Marantz or lower end Rega tables, I may be doing so based solely on opinions expressed here as I doubt I'll be able to audition then. The only table I've been able to audition upstream is the SME20. Loved it but way out of budget.
Thanks for your help.

Stickman: Very helpful. Can you tell me what you heard when moving from the Scout up to the Aries 3? I've been looking at them for sale here and am quite interested in that particular table. Did you move your cartridge from one table to the other so that what you heard was pretty much just that upgrade?
I'm thinking I'm going to be putting the table either on a wall shelf I'll mount, or on a concrete mantle to my fireplace. I know that's relatively inert though perhaps it has some high frequency ringing.
Best,

Continuing my quest. I found a dealer for VPI while traveling - unfortunately he was out of stock. He did have a Linn LP12 and a Rega P3 setup side by side, so I gave a listen to those.

Now, I've heard the Rega elsewhere - and with the PSU - was quite impressed at the price point.

He had the tables running through a Linn preamp, and a Mark Levinson amp driving B&W 801s in a fairly sizable room. They weren't out far enough, but it should have been okay. This is a dealer who claims to be expert in TT/cartridge setup. Unfortunately, I didn't have my records. Here's what I heard:
Very smooth, very quiet, very dark and no air or spatial presentation. The Linn was very marginally better than the Rega. Certainly not 5x the price better. I think the dealer was almost hurt by my reaction. Perhaps I have too much wax in my ears. But, the other presentations of the Rega were much better. He asked me to come back w/ my music. Both tables had comparable MM cartridges - a Linn and Rega Elys at the same price points.
So, what was wrong?