Rega Turntables Of England
Rega was started by Roy Gandy in England in 1973. He and his wife still run the company! Audio Emporium has sold Rega since we opened in 1977.
Rega’s niche has always been to make great sounding, affordable tables. In the early years, Rega made the turntables, but bought tonearms and carts from other sources to round them out. They were outstanding for their day.
By the mid 80s Rega was making its line of tables, arms and even cartridges, in house in England. Regas have always had the fit and finish of a UK product, vs something slapped together in an assembly house somewhere else. Rega continues this quality today!
Rega is fanatical about the details of making record playing machines. These tables use precision ground belts, play 33-45 RPM, and have strong rejection to skipping when people walk around your room. All spring loaded designs, even expensive ones for $10k, skip like mad if your toddler runs by.
The sonic advantage of Rega tables vs direct drives, is that they sound more CLEAR, especially in the bass region. There is less ringing, hence less muddiness, with Rega. Guitar picking and piano attacks are more clearly spelled out. You get to enjoy the craft of a great tactician more clearly with Rega than the mid priced rumble boxes out there. Even before Rega made its own arms, we used them as tables alone. And yes, absolutely, the machine spinning the record makes a big difference in the sound.
Planar One With Carbon Cartridge $595
Planar 1 is a true cut above table, even at its entry level price point.
*Rega makes its own thrust plates to be flat.
*They use low friction bearings that ride within a brass well
*Planar 1 uses an aluminum pulley
*Planar 1 uses a phenolic platter to create a fly wheel affect
*Rega makes their own one piece tonearms, RB110 in this case, with low resonance and high quality bearings.
*Their auto bias mechanism is magnetically controlled.
*Planar 1 uses a plinth of Thermoset glass laminate.
*Their Carbon cartridge is a good tracking moving magnet design with 2.5mV output.
In short, Planar One isn’t an assembly of cheap motors and parts from Asia, cobbled together in some building- heaven only knows where- and shipped out with a fancy logo on its box.
Planar Two with Carbon Cartridge $775
Planar 2 is a nice step above Planar 1 above. It has a quieter motor and superior, 10mm glass platter. The plinth is acrylic laminate. It uses cut above RB220 tonearm with lower friction bearings than RB110. Planar 2 has heavier duty, superior isolating feet. Planar 2 has a quieter background and allows a BIGGER and more robust sound to be heard.
For Planar 2 in particular, I’d like to twist your arm to consider a better cartridge. My choice is the Ortofon 2M Blue, $239. For about a grand, you’re getting a slice of true high end performance at a magic price point.
Planar Three with Elys 2 Cartridge $1395
Planar 3 is an industry standard. It has a better motor, 12mm glass platter and better tonearm, RB330, than Planar 2. In fact, RB330 ($675 by itself) is an industry classic arm which Rega sells to a variety of vendors- who only make spinning mechanisms on their own. Planar 3 features double bracing for its arm interface, with 3mm phenolic bracing underneath the table, and a metal brace above. Planar 3 comes with its own power supply, but will accommodate Rega’s Neo supply ($445) if you want to upgrade.
It comes with Rega’s Elys 2 cart, an industry stalwart that sells for $345 on its own. Elys 2 has a one piece aluminum cantilever and nude elliptical stylus, with an output of 7.0mV. Keep in mind that almost all MM carts have two piece cantilever construction and you suffer loss of transmission energy with 2 pieces vs one.
There are many advantages to Planar 3 with Elys 2 if you can stretch your budget.
John & Yoko’s Neighbor
John & Yoko’s neighbor moved into the Dakota apartment building in NYC a few years before John’s murder. She was the first black resident of the Dakota and became fast friends with John, Yoko and son Sean. They enjoyed much neighborly time together, and shared a little music too. It turns out the new neighbor had even a larger, louder piano than John did. But the Lennons didn’t mind, because she was a talented classical pianist who happened to sing a bit too. Their neighbor… Roberta Flack.