Which upgrades for my Rega Planar 3?


Hi All,

I just got a mint condition Rega P3, and I'm curious about all the possible upgrades I see out there. Which ones are beneficial; which ones NECESSARY; which ones a waste of money?

Thanks in advance,

the rustler
Ag insider logo xs@2xrustler
The best mod's are one's you can only create yourself. I've bought everything for my P25 but still feel the platter my daughter and I built and the thick sorbothane we added everywhere did the most by far. Beyond that, the Pete Riggle VTAF is most important.
experiment with mats -- I have the Audioquest Sorbothane mat and the Ringmat. Both have different sounds.
re-wire tonearm with Cardas or other choices. Cardas worked for me.
Change the feet - many options, mod squad soft shoes worked for me.
You could try applying 3m dampning sheets to the underside of the plinth but I could not notice much change.
What about the tonearm rewiring services offered by BritAudio? One is Cardas wiring, the other a more elaborate Incognito package, that includes Cardas wires. Anybody familiar?

Thanks so far,
russ
The Rega 3 is a very under-rated deck. I've had mine for over 25 years and it has out-performed Linns and Sota Cosmos regularly.
The trick is really the arm that you use.....I've used a 30 year old Hadcock GH 228 unipivot which the Graham and VPI unipivots studied very well when in their design stages.
Also what helps, is making a thin platform out of 12mm laminated MDF with 3 adjustable screws positioned under the 3 rubber feet. This allows for EXACT levelling of the deck and rejects the absorption of air-borne low-frequency feed- back through the base.
The Rega arm is NO contest for the Hadcock and you ain't heard the Rega 3 until you hear hear it with a great unipivot like the Hadcock.
Boston Audio Mat1 platter mat - $199, Mapleshade Heavyfoot cones x 3 - $120 into a Mapleshade Maple Platform - $75, suspened on sorbothane squares - $20, Kerry Audio Design F2 counterweight - $129 and Acrotec armwire straight thru to male RCA - $150.