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
rustler
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.