Tonearm for rega Planar 3

Some prefer the Rega RB250 to the RB300. Less money too. I agree in that I wouldn't start screwing around with non-Rega arms on a Rega table. You may start getting into issues with the depth of the other arm, or the wiring may bind up for some reason. Not worth the hassle, especially when the Rega arms work so well.

According to Rega, the RB301 is an improved 300, but I don't think they sell it separately from the P3-24.

There's no difference between a Moth and an OEM Rega. Rega supplies their arms to a number of manufacturers and allows them to put their name on it. The Michell Tecnoarm is a different story. It's a modified RB250 that's significantly better than an OEM. Read about it here.

The standard RB300 and RB250 are nice arms that can't be beat for the price. Either one would be an easy drop in without changing the mounting hole. There's a lot to be said for that if you haven't mounted an arm before. I agree with others to stick with Rega. There are lots of tweaks and upgrades that can be done to the 250 and 300. Michell makes an excellent counterweight called the TecnoWeight. It's a significant upgrade that improves the low end. They also makes a VTA adjustment sleeve that works well. I've never seen the VPI version Stanwal mentions.

An Origin Live is unquestionably better than an RB300 or 301, but you'll pay 3 or 4 times as much.

If you own the Grado Platinum, live with it for a while. There are plenty of alternatives when the upgrade itch hits. Focus on getting the table together first.

-Mark

I just replaced the S-shaped RB200 on my Planar 2 with a Moth MK3 (OEM RB300). This arm had the CCM counterweight installed. It is a very nice arm, good sounding and a pleasure to use. I can certainly recommend it.

I always miss something in these threads. Why should one tonearm be better for one turntable than another? It simply doesn't follow logic. Get the best tonearm you can afford, and put it on the deck you have. I suppose that if the turntable in question was a springy type, one too heavy wouldn't be optimum, but how could it matter otherwise? You buy tonearms to suit cartridges, not turntables. A turntable is merely a device intended to quietly spin a record at the exact speed without imparting anything detrimental to the outcome. If it does that, it has done its part.

Mosin, it does matter. What you have missed is the last 30 years of turntable design. Some arms work better with one turntable, some with another. LOGIC would tell us that all turntables which revolved at the correct speed should sound the same. That is what they thought in 1960, you haven't just parachuted in from there , have you? Turntables, arms and cartridges are mechanical devices which have complex interactions and sound quite different. Turntables themselves produce their own sound apart from arms or cartridges, "Anything detrimental to the outcome" can mean many different things, but whatever it means is far from simple.