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

Do you have a budget in mind and are you wanting go used or new?

Buying a used table/arm and a new cartridge with your budget you can certainly do way better than a P3/24, and the diminishing returns syndrome is overrated IMHO as long as the rest of your system is up to the task. You should be looking at table/arms with list prices of about $3-4k and cartridges in the $1k range. You can do even better, although a bit risky, by buying the cartridge used as well. There is a lot of very good competition at that price, with varied appeal sound wise, ergonomically and aesthetically. I would make a short list of what appeals to you at that price and don['t worry about whether a P3, or for that matter, a Technics 1200, will do just as well. It won't.

Addendum to my last post.

When manufacturers develop their line, higher priced models have to be demonstrably better to justify their positions otherwise not only will customers not buy them, but dealers won't sell them.

Could be the dealer likes it that way and works the set up to that end. Could be you like things bright. Could be the recordings.