[Stu Pitt]

Rega gets the soul of the music right.  There's a ton of gear out there that has better resolution, imaging, soundstaging, insert your hifi quality preference here.

To me, it doesn't matter how well it can reproduce a bunch of sounds; what's important is if it can let the emotion and groove of the music through.  The other stuff is great, but it's worthless to me if it doesn't get the tune right.  I can think of quite a few manufacturers who seem to get everything right but the music itself.  Musical Fidelity (should be named Musical Fatality) and Music Hall immediately come to mind.  I hear anything but music out of those two.

[Letitroll98]

This slender little beauty really knowns how to rock. It may not be the last work in resolution,  but everything else is there. I know I'm starting to sound like the Rega rep, but these decks are not stop gaps. They are very, very good. At least IMHO.

That's correct doc.  You're getting all of the musical essentials right with that deck.  Without sticking to any particular brand be it Rega P5, P7, or VPI, Nottingham, Well Tempered, etc., as you move up you will notice more resolution, quieter backgrounds, more speed stability, which yields bigger soundstages, fuller and more solidly placed instruments and singers, tighter and deeper bass, etc.  But the basics of rhythm, tempo, tone, detail, clarity, soundstage, imaging are in the P3, you're not missing anything in your equipment, I didn't mean to say that.  You almost have to hear it to understand, but I wouldn't stress on it if I were you.  The Rega deck is great fun to play with for some time.  You can get a new subplatter, a new bearing, a new platter, different mats, VTA adjusters, different counter weights, just Google up Rega mods, you can spend years fiddling with what you have.  Enjoy!