upgrade or replace rega planar 3

I would calculate the costs of the upgrades vs the cost of a new table minus the sale of your Planar 3. Inna's comments aside, Rega builds very nice turntables-so the Planar 3 may indeed be worthy of an upgrade, especially since you have already upgraded to the RB600 arm. Things I would upgrade in order would be:

1. New 24v motor and PSU
2. Groovetracer subplatter
3. Groovetracer plater

These upgrades will significantly raise the performance of the Planar 3 to almost P5 levels-the main issue, as I see it, is that you will still own a Planar 3. I had a similar decision to make regarding my P25-I decided to buy a used, but well taken care of, P7. I made the right decision.

Inna, my Rega P-3 fit your description, it was flat, until I replaced the tonearm wire, the motor, the sub platter, the acrylic platter, and installed the heavy weight arm balance; after that, it sang.

Orpheus10, that would be almost a new turntable, and it probably cost you another $1k or so. I would just see no reason to do that, nor would I trust a company that makes "junk" in stock form, be it turtable, car or whatever.
By the way, I keep looking for something to post in that video/music thread. Nothing so far.

Orpheus,
I dont know whos review or what model of Sota Sapphire or upgrade Rega you are referring to, but I have owned a Sota Sapphire III and Rega P3, both using RB300 arms and the Rega isnt in the same league, not by a long shot, whether you are comparing bass, quietness, speed regulation, isolation from external vibrations, PRAT or any other item. Its just a better made and performing turntable. Have you actually owned and compared both?

Inna, you're right, it was about 1K. We set the bar so high that it's very hard to reach.