Hi John,

Did you consider the RB250?  I notice a lot of manufacturers have been customising this arm and using it on pretty expensive motor units.  The reason often given is that the RB300 uses spring Biasing while the 250 doesn't (they tend to use the VPI trick of twisting the arm cable a bit more to generate lateral biasing force.)

There are divided opinions on the disavantageousness of spring biasing - or indeed downforce - but it's worth remembering that many "Flagship" tonearms use springs. Just to confuse matters !

The RB300 has quite a few possible upgrades to it's name by the way. "Incognito" arm wiring and the Michell Technoweight spring to mind.  I've heard good reports on both.

 Kind regards, Bill.

I have an RB200 on my old Planar 3 and it has a nice clarity to it. I am considering upgrading to an RB300 though, or even changing decks completely and going for something more high end.

 I think as long as you don't spend too much (it sounds as if your deck is pretty old so you don't want to have to constantly upgrade, you could buy something new with less cost & fuss) any Rega RB arm will give you lots of happy hours of listening pleasure. Make sure you match it well with the cartridge.