Go to the final upgrades  Go to late-2024  Go to 2025

There was a period from the mid 90'ies to mid 0'es where my turntable and records were in the attic, and CDs were my prime source of music. Fortunately I didn't sell my vinyls, as so many often regrettably did. Since high school I've had turntables, from the first cheap plastic Philips, over B&Os to Garrard/SME and so on.
This simple mechanical way of storing music never stopped to fascinate and thrill my senses. In principle, having a needle in a groove, converting mechanical energy into electrical energy seems ludicrous, yet with current technology can deliver something that can compete with high-res digital reproduction. No discussion here on analogue versus digital. Each has qualities the other does not, so hold your peace and take your pic.
Anyway, I got carried away in my ever lasting pursuit of more for less, hence my digging into the world of Rega and I bought a Rega P8/RB880/Ortofon Candenza Branze. Read here.

I was looking for a tonearm for my Denon DP67L turntable and a friend had a Rega RB250 arm at a reasonable price, and I thought, why not?
Actually, what my friend had for sale was the whole turntable, the P2/RB250. So, all of a sudden I had a complete Rega P2 turntable. I started ordering a new belt as the old one was so loose I could hardly run from the 33 rpm pulley. I got the EBLT belt the next day and I can only say this belt did it. Apparently Rega has done some research into rubber composition and running this belt compared to the old belt it becomes clear that rubber is not just rubber. Elasticity and resilience may be important parametres here.
Initially I added my Ortofon 2M Black LVB cartridge and started spinning records. This produced some very pleasant moments, very good indeed!
This started a whole range of "what ifs"...Could I make a turntable that would challenge my Rega P8? The RB250 tonearm of the P2 seemed very good indeed. What if...
Now, you can buy upgrades to Rega turntables almost indefinitely. New wires, new counterweights in various forms, new 24V AC motor, new power supply (Neo PSU), new mat, new spindle, new platter, new aluminum subplatter, new isolation feet, new double or triple pulley, new, new, new...until the moment where you might as well have bought a more expensive version, like the P6. Are these upgrades worth it? We can't tell until we tried - and what are the true bottlenecks of the P2 turntable?
Well, trying the 2M Black LVB, the Quintet Black, and finally the MSL Eminent EX cartridges convinced me it would be really hard to pinpoint the bottlenecks, because the P2 did very well in comparison with my Rega P8/RB880/Cadenza and even my Kuzma StabiR/4P9/Windfeld Ti.

For one, the plinth made from resonant chipboard material might need some improvement. I know all about the Rega philosophy of low-mass plinths, and I respect that, but also know that high-mass turntables work - and work very well. My Kuzma weighs some 10 times the mass of my P8.

For a start I decided to make a new plinth and order the 24V AC motor upgrade. This way I can also try the power supply of the P8. The old motor is a 220 V AC motor running directly from the mains. Very simple indeed.
It's fun making a new plinth and you only have to make one compared to making loudspeakers, a nice change for the time being, although I got carried away and later made one more...
The plinth was made from 20 mm Baltic birch laminated with 4 mm bitumen pad and 10 mm Baltic birch panel at bottom, all glued together and drilled and routed to new motor, spindle and tonearm. Drawing below.
The new motor comes with an aluminum pulley compared to the plastic pulley of the original. Together with the new belt this works really well and starts rotation immediately and can even allow decent pressure of the record cleaning pad, although not nearly as much as the Kuzma. The Kuzma is a powerful tank in comparison.

Testing my range of cartridges put my suspicion of the cable somewhat in the background. Adding new wiring is serious business, pulling ultrathin wires through the armtube, etc. I've tried this before - not easy. This will be a late upgrade.
The counterweight: I seriously doubt this will significantly change the sound for the better - no matter how many positive reviews it has. When we buy new stuff it may sharpen our attention and we hear things we didn't before. Was it our perception or the tweak that did it?

What I may look at is the glass platter resting on a resonant plastic subplatter. This can hardly be optimal and numerous subplatters are available with silicone rings, etc., for better coupling of the two. I believe the friction here should be as high as possible to transfer the energy from the motor to the platter.
Also the 3 mm felt pad may be exchanged for the Origin Live 1 mm mat I use on my P8 and Kuzma turntables. I've come to like this mat making a firm connection to the vinyl. 

        
Left: The new EBLT belt. Right: Download P2 Manual.

Rega 24V AC motor upgrade kit.

New plinth #1 taking shape.

Left: All parts from the dismantled P2. Right: New EBLT belt on new plinth.

Final plinth spinning my vinyl.

A friend lend me his new Quintet Black (sapphire cantilever) and we had a go against the P8/Cadenza. This Quintet MC has the same price tag as the 2M Black LVB, but obviously takes a SUT to perform. I ran the Quintet and Cadenza through my EAR MC4 SUT.
First of all, going from the LVB to Quintet makes it clear MCs can do stuff MM mostly cannot. The Quintet makes it a bit easier to listen to records. Sound is a bit more dynamic and the soundstage a bit more liberated and 3-dimensional. I emphasise these differences are small, but significant. That said, the modded P2/Quintet did very well, and I liked it a lot.
Compared to the P8/Cadenza it becomes clear the P2/Quintet has limitations. Getting my 45 rpm Vincent Bélanger record on the platter demonstrated the superiority of the P8/Cadenza. Vibrant, free in space.

Plinth #2

I got so carried away by making my first plinth, that it gave ideas to a new one. It's fairly simple and doesn't take long - and it's great fun. I started making a drawing of the plinth:

Plinth seen from top.
I made a rectangular cutout for a new switch. I don't like the round Rega switch.
Actually the tonearm requires a 23 mm hole, but hard to find, and a 24 mm hole gives a little room for adjusting distance of pivot to spindle.

Seen from bottom. To the left the routing for the motor. I route down to 3 mm left. To the right routing for the tonearm. The tonearm doesn't take 34 mm panel thickness, so I removed down to the oak bar.

For the 2nd plinth I inserted a 20 mm oak bar to make a strong connection between the spindle and the tonearm, something Rega does with aluminum bars on the more expensive turntables. This oak bar may be no better that the bare Baltic birch plinth, but I like the look of it.
Tapping the new plinth compared to the old one leaves no doubt of a less resonant structure of the new one.

Removing the motor from plinth #1 was easy. Just gently lift it with a chisel from two sides. Next a new layer of double adhesive tape was applied an the motor was attached to plinth #2. This actually proved too little and I added new tape and a block of foam plastic between the motor and the cover. This did it and kept the motor in place. I took apart the P8 motor and could see this is firmly attached to the plinth with screws. See below.

My friend had his Quintet back and I mounted my MSL cartridge on the tonearm. Rather exorbitant I would say, but was the modded P2 up to the task? Indeed it was. And quite a competitor to the P8/Cadenza. Well, few would add a cartridge 20 times the cost of a 2nd hand P2. But all of this just to get first hand experience on bottlenecks in vinyl playback.

Right: The Rega P8 motor assembly. Motor firmly pressed against the plinth with two screws.

I had forgotten the power supply cable from the P8 is fixed, so I had to order a Neo PSU cable in order to hear if this power supply in fact does improve sound from the P2.

Finally the PSU cable came and going from the wallwort to Neo PSU really didn't change much - if anything. I wish I could compare the old 220 V AC motor to the 24 V AC motor w/wo the Neo PSU, but this can't be done.
Now, comparing the P8/Cadenza Bronze, Kuzma/StabiR/4P9/Windfeld Ti and the modded Rega P2/RB250/MSL Eminent EX really didn't leave any of these turntables behind. They all sound really, really good. Only thing I can say is that the background noise on a 45 rpm vinyl makes the P2 stand out a little. More background noise. I guess the bearing is the cause here. Time will tell because I'm going all in here and will try more stuff, new bearing, subplatter, counterweight and tonearm cable. Just for the fun of it. This P2 fitted with a seriously good cartridge has potential. More on this later.

As can be seen from all the timers I keep track of cartridges' mileage!
We all should do that. How many times have we seen an add saying "very few hours"? Buying 2nd hand cartridges is always gambling. Even a timer can be fake info. 

The final upgrades:

These upgrades were bought from TNG-SPINNER, Argentina.
Price was 436 EUR incl. shipping.

I liked the bearing and spindle tip being made from Vesconite Hi-Lube (up to 10 times the life of a bronze bushing). All resting on a ceramic ball.
To the left the bearing stuffed with paper tissue to prevent the ceramic ball from disappearing in my workshop. 

The new subplatter with silicone rings making good contact to the glass platter.
Here with the standard pulley from the 24 V AC upgrade motor.

Left: The bearing is simply fastened with a plastic nut with a silicone ring making good contact to the plinth.
Right: The new counterweight installed.

Removing the "old" pulley is tricky and I had to make a device (pulley puller ?) enabling me to remove the pulley. This was not at all easy and in the end I had to make a 3 x 5 mm rod to extend the screw tip. This can be done by drilling the pulley hole to 3 mm from top. The motor shaft is 3 mm, but Rega leaves some of the hole 2 mm, probably just go get the height consistent relative to the subplatter.
Adding the new double pulley was easy. Not exactly a super tight fit, but enough to keep a firm grip on the subplatter with double belts.

 
New subplatter with double pulley and silicone belts, which follows the pulley.
I bought an extra ELBT belt to use the original Rega. I can't tell which is best.

Origin Live mat and ELBT belts.

Above the final P2, now run from the Neo PSU as the double pulley only allows 33 rpm from the wallwort. We need the Neo PSU to have 45 rpm as well.

Now, I can't say that adding a single item at a time will change performance significantly. As-is plus a new counterweight, I can't say this helps significantly.
Adding the new subplatter + bearing, maybe a little improvement in sound, reduced background noise.
Adding the double pulley, maybe a little.
BUT, all together...My goodness! This modded P2 more than rivals my P8 - and at half the price. And I shall not hesitate to say you can add a seriously expensive cartridge to the turntable and get the full return. With the MSL cartridge it is better than the P8/Cadenza and rivals the Kuzma StabiR/4P9/Windfeld Ti. I turned up the volume a little more than usual- because now I could. Bacground noise is seriously low and all in all - just easier to listen to vinyls.
Now I just need to add some new and better feet and place it on a rock solid shelf.
I had an acquaintance that promised to come by with his Rega P10/Ortofon Anna D for comparison to my Kuzma/StabiR/4P9/Anna-D and well - he never did. I'm wouldn't be surprised if it's a tie.

Get the bearing right, the driving belts, a good motor, a decent plinth, a Rega-whatever arm - and a really good cartridge - and you're in for some extraordinary sound. 

Let's look at economics:
2nd hand P2/RB250: 187 EUR.
Tonearm cable: 0 EUR (had shielded wire in stock).
Belt: 30 EUR.
24 V AC motor upgrade: 228 EUR (incl. shipping from Germany).
Upgrades from TNG-SPINNER: 436 EUR.
Plinth materials: ~50 EUR.
Origin Live platter mat: 60 EUR.
Total: 187+0+30+228+436+50+60 = 991 EUR.
In addition to this an extra Neo PSU: 350 EUR. New total: 1.341 EUR.

Late 2024:

Curiosity can be costly, but I couldn't help thinking about the Cadenza Black. Initially I picked the Bronze to have the same stylus for comparison. The Black holds a Shibata stylus, but on a boron cantilever. What would that do?
Thus, the Black was ordered and added to my highly modded Rega P2. I've read reviews of the Bronze and Black in comparison and I don't fully agree on the conclusions. The differences are nowhere subtle. Yes, the Bronze has a more lush presentation, but the Black is simple more open and clean.
I like it a lot and should anyone find the Windfeld Ti too costly, go for the Cadenza Black. I'll say you get almost the same for half. My reservation about the Shibata stylus is completely gone.
My modded P2 has run the MSL Eminent EX until now, but the Cadenza Black is likely to stay in place for a long time.

For many years I used the Jazz at the Pawnshop as a reference recording. Then new things came along and I haven't actually played it for years. Many things have changed in my setup, better turntables, better cartridges, better amplifiers, etc., etc.
Pulling out the recording again after many years made me realise that what I thought was perfect back then, really had some shortcomings. I recall the clarinet always had a slight edginess to it and the soundstage some lack of depth. Not any more. With some large 3-ways in my workshop (to be published later this year, 2025) and the modded Rega/Candenza Black/EAR MC4/EAR-868PL/Parasound A21+ there were lots of new things to discover. Smooth, smooth clarinet and well, like sitting 2nd row in the Pawnshop with the full stage width and depth. Never thought I could get this much out of that recording - and this from a modded Rega... I have an early pressing of The Pawnshop, mint condition - and it really was mint - which I paid an indecent amount of money for on eBay - but it was well worth it.

2025:

Now, from the leftovers I had my #1 plinth, a bearing and subplatter from my initial P2 purchase, and on a local 2nd hand website I got a RB300 with Cardas internal wiring for 160€, no termination. So, I bought a DIN socked en eBay from the UK and I had my pure silver tonearm cable from Yannis in Wales. So far so good. A local vinyl shop - for some reason - had a 12 mm Rega glass platter in store. I bought it, another 160€. To make a functional turntable I needed a new 24V AC upgrade motor. I ordered one. I have a sympathetic dealer and I paid another 160€. I put it all together and I got the turntable seen below. With a Ortofon 2M Black LVB you're in for some damned good sound. And it can take an even better cartridge.

The subplatter was filled with Superfix to dampen resonances.

I also had a 1 mm Origin Live mat.

From TNG-SPINNER I had a second double pulley, but will wait as this requires an extra power supply - and I already have two. Will wait until later.

My sympathetic dealer also had a new dust cover in store. Some 80€.
The female part of the hinges don't follow the dust cover, so I had to make a fillet of oak to keep the cover in place. Not that simple due to the shape of the hinges.

Fitted with my Ortofon 2M Black LVB MM cartridge left some pleasurable moments. Excellent transparency mostly on par with my more expensive MC siblings, but with a more lush and warm bass/lower midrange slightly lacking in attack, precision and low-end transparency. Some will favor this fullness of sound, and for sure, with this cartridge you can play anything!
Most likely I will move my Cadenza Bronze to this Rega #3 and install my MSL MC cartridge on the Rega P8. It's great fun demonstrating various cartridges to my friends and hear their response when these low-cost turntables - fitted with seriously expensive cartridges - are compared to the Kuzma/Windfeld Ti. Yes, there are small differences, but damn... it's expensive to get the last bit.