I am frankly stunned at how cheep used P3's with what by all accounts is a superb arm (rb300) go for. I am leaning toward keeping an eye pealed for one of those.
As for the miida, yes, I am happy with it, and felt somewhat reassured when I had notieced it had, for example, no auto-lift at the end of the record. I am guessing here, but wouldn't it only be intended "audiophile" players that would have been missing this "feature" back in the early 70's? Plus, it weighs around 30 pounds or, which too is reassuring. The attached output cables are also very thick, suggesting at least an intention for this to be a "serious" deck for that time.
My focus now is going to be on isolation, then on a new table. From the posts here, and reading up on some "upgrade" oriented posts in the archives, I've seen that really, objective number one should always be to get the table itself all straightened out. So, no fiddling with new carts or pre-amps YET ;)
How can the P3 be so good a player for so cheap? Is it because of that arm, which I have heard is just simply one of those "pure gems" of the hi-fi world?
One feature I do sometimes think about as a goal would be easily chageable headshells or tonearms. The reason for this is I have heard recently (the wonderful MF in stereophile, a tweaker with taste imo) that mono records benefit from a mono cartridge, and I would like to be able to switch out carts for when I pull out one of my many 40's or 50's era lp's. I am guessing headshells would be the easiest route for that kind of strategy.
Well, during this horrible time of tragedy it is a welcome relief to turn to things of beauty to recharge the spirit, and thats what music does for me. Listen on all!
pcanis