You've probably seen the "shoot-out" (hate that term) that was done by a Japanese magazine in the 80s, wherein two reviewers listened to about a dozen of the top TTs of the day and ranked them according to certain qualities. (Someone will no doubt post the URL; I can't find it right now.) In that article, the P3 was tied with the EMT 930 (I think) for top rank. Those two were ranked well ahead of all others in most categories and came out on top in net score. Weaknesses of the article were that some other top of the line TTs, such as Technics SP10 MkIII and Denon DP100, were not included, and that the tonearms and cartridges seem to have been different for each TT. For example, the P3 has it's own integrated arm that was certainly not used with any of the other tables. But there is no doubt that the P3 and the later P3a represented Pioneer's all out efforts in TT design and build quality.
