Rega Planar 3 50th anniversary

Is it not the case that the three point mount is relevant to changing tonearms, rather than cartridges? Or do you change cartridge by swapping in another tonearm?

I've owned an RB300 on a P3, and have two RB330s (currently unused), and their cartridge mounts are entirely conventional.

Was not a "rebuke". In your first written effort, your words made it seem you had to replace one P6 with another in order to use a new (Rega) MC cartridge. I am not a Rega-phile, but I have read often about the fixed VTA and limited alignment flexibility of Rega tonearms, should one be so bold as to want to mount a non-Rega cartridge. So I took your words at apparent face value. I think I understand why Rega are so rigid in their design philosophy. Many end users are not interested in or not capable of understanding cartridge set-up, and so there is always a risk of dissatisfaction with the product that is totally unrelated to any real shortcoming. Then those persons who have had a bad experience owing to their own ineptitude might complain on the various internet outlets, which creates a false impression that the product itself is flawed in some way. Rega are trying to take the guesswork out of cartridge selection and setup in order to avoid such unfair critiques, I think.

@goodlistening64 

  I didn’t want to go through the whole song and dance about the experience with the Rega P5, but since you asked..

  I bought the P5 and the PSU from a reputable dealer here in Chicago.  The PSU died when it was under warranty.  Honestly the player didn’t sound any different with or without it.  I took the PSU back to the dealer.  It took almost a year to get a replacement from Rega.  This then died after a few weeks.  Back to the dealer I went, and was told that my complaint was not unique and that other customers were having trouble.  This time Rega refused to replace the PSU since the original warranty had expired.  I won’t recapitulate the back and forth between the dealer and myself.  At the time I was upset with the dealer, who I thought should compensate me in some fashion, but it really was Rega’s issue.  Since the PSU appeared to do nothing except look like an ugly paperweight I dropped it.

  Again, I query:  Why should a company have to make an extra gizmo, and charge substantial money for it, to correct an issue that proper engineering would have not allowed in the first place?  In what other industry are consumers so gullible as to shell out for something the company is admitting is faulty at the date of purchase?

I can only conclude that Rega and other companies are trying to squeeze every nickel they can from listeners well known to be obsessive about quality.