Advice needed on sub $1000 setup

No joy on evil bay - only a seller in the UK At $470 ish. Did find a general electronics store in Washington selling the 304 for $382 - but this guy sells everything from vacuums to security cams - doesn't make me comfortable that I'll really get what I ordered. Anyone dealt with these guys? http://www.garrett-smarthome.com/proddetail.php?prod=DL-304

Well, after reading tons of reviews I kept seeing people mention the DL-160 and how they liked it. I finally decided that at some point I was going to have to try a DL-160 even if I wound up settling on a much higher end cart (not that I have the money for that at the moment). Not seeing any deals on my target higher end carts I went ahead and ordered a new DL-160 along with some cleaning supplies from needle doc. Many thanks to everyone for your assistance. I'll report back in a few weeks and let you all know how it turns out.

Cheers,
Mark

The modified Rega P3 arrived yesterday. Custom hardwood plinth (massive), Deepgrove subplatter, RB300 arm...I plugged in the motor and discovered there was a pulsing sound from the motor (disconnected the belt to make sure it wasn't the platter). Bummer...haven't solved that one yet, but working on it.

Not having my cart or phono preamp yet I decided to give it a try using my over 25 year old well worn Signet TK1EA cart and the junk phono pre I picked up from Frys several years back. I really wasn't expecting much - even if the P3 was way better than my old Yamaha TT, I expected the results to be masked by the worn cheap cart and the lousy pre amp. More importantly I wanted to find out of the motor pulsing sound would be audible when playing music.

Much to my surprise - not only did the pulsing stay out of the audio path, but there was a noticeable improvement in clarity and detail over my old table. So much that even my wife noticed - commenting that there was much more depth to the music.

Can't wait to hear what it sounds like with the new cart and pre!

BTW - I have to add I had forgotten how much I enjoyed playing LPs compared to CDs. Music is fundamentally an analog experience - and placing the needle on the spinning vinyl disc (and watching it play) somehow completes the experience in a way that placing a CD into a digital machine (essentially a computer) can not.