Trawlerman
Well-Known Member
Hi,
Today I found a review of the REGA Planar 3 Turntable which I wrote back in 1999 and I want to share this with you as i'm rather proud of this little deck.
Mick
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rega Research is a company that enjoys being different. Some might even say it takes a perverse delight in not following convention. Its products are as distinctive as the way it chooses to run its business. Its ideas might seem strange at firstbut everything at Rega is geared to fulfil its mission statement, which is utterly straightforward and not the slightest bit complicated. Quite simply, Rega aims to make high quality products that faithfully reproduce music and sell at sensible prices. It is keen to develop new and exciting technologies and manufacturing techniques that perpetuate its ideals of quality and value for money.
The Southend-based company’s ‘deliberately different’ approach is interesting and thought provoking. When you listen to Rega products you will probably find yourself appreciating and understanding their approach. You certainly won’t be alone if you decide that Rega’s way of doing things has some merit. There are music lovers in all corners of the world who subscribe to its philosophy of building hi-fi that provides performance at affordable prices, components that do not rapidly become obsolete, and equipment that is so thoughtfully engineered that it carries a lifetime guarantee against manufacturing defects.
REGA PLANAR 3
Roy Gandy formed Rega back in 1973. It was a predictable move for a man working on design and development for the Ford motor company but spent most of what you would call his leisure time making turntables, building loudspeakers and installing friends' hi-fi systems.
The first turntable to come from Rega was the famous Planet, which went on sale in 1973. It was born out of Roy's frustration with contemporary record decks. He spent more time than he thought appropriate repairing new turntables and making them fit to deliver to customers so Roy Gandy along with the help of his business partner, Tony Relph (REGA = RElph + GAndy) decided to build their own and thus one of the worlds most famous decks was born.
In 1975, the Planet developed into the now world-famous Planar 2 and in 1977 was joined by the Planar 3. Within months of their introduction they quickly established themselves as the finest budget turntables of the day. More than twenty years later they are still in production, improved but not radically altered, and still regarded as the benchmark by which all others are judged.
REGA's first turntable the Planet. Complete with an RB200 Tonearm. Gratuitously pictured here for no other reason other than for nostalgia.
The Planar 3 achieved its position of market dominance and global acclaim despite being born to such a contrary parent. Its proud father did not announce its arrival with a flurry of advertising and promotion. To this day, Rega has deliberately avoided convetntional marketing startegies. Rega themselves have said "We prefer to spend what would be our promotional budget - if we worked like other companies - on developing products"
To date, over 300,000 Planar 3's have been manufactured and sold in over 25 countries throughout the world. In 1980, Rega had thirteen employees and exported to twelve countries. The company bought an old mill in Westcliff-on-Sea and transformed it into a factory. Other products followed, RB250 and RB300 in 1983, the Bias and Elys cartridges in 1988, Ela speakers in 1989 and the first amplifiers in 1991
The old mill became more and more cramped until a new factory was constructed in Southend in 1992. The new space enabled Rega to introduce three new models of speakers, an amplifier, a cartridge, a tuner, and most recently, a CD player.
In 1996, Rega has two factories, forty employees, and distributors in thirty countries. Rega's philosophy is to make high quality products at sensible prices, as a means of reproducing music as faithfully as possible. Rega is committed to the design and development of new and innovative products, both in hi-fi and other areas, that will perpetuate Regas' values of quality and value for the money.
REGA PLANAR 3 turntable.
Rega Research is known worldwide for their turntables and cartridges. Their two budget turntables, the Planar2 and Planar3, have been staples of the audio world for 25 years. Both give excellent bang-for-the-buck and a battleship build – unlike those pesky Linn LP12’s we usually hear so much about. Shit, with an LP12 it needs re-calibrating more of less every time it's used! That's not what I would call a reliable turntable at all.
One of the main advantages of the Planar2 & 3, is their simplicity. While you can choose to add any cartridge off the peg, Rega themselves have designed their own range of cartridges specifically designed for use in the RB250 and RB3200 tonearms. A three hole mounting system has been designed by Rega to allow simple installation of cartridges with the minimum of fuss. Simply drop in the three bolts and away you go, align the two main bolts then drop in the third bolt at the front et voila! overhang and everything is set to optimum. All you need to do then is set the tracking force, usually around 1.5-1.75 mg and away you go. There isn't even any VTA (Vertical Tracking Angle) to set as the tonearms are specifically set for the Rega cartridges.
So how often does one usually have to make adjustments to a Rega turntable? Not very often at all – in fact, I’ve had my own Planar3 for around two years now and nothing much has changed since when I first set it up. Rega turntables don’t even have VTA adjustment, so right there is one thing that can’t go wrong.
Indeed, Regas' reputation has been built on the success of its turntables. The Planar 3 represents a unique achievement of quality, performance, and value for the money. The plinth is dense non-resonant ultra low mass microfibre plinth laminated with highly rigid phenolic resin laminate. The belt drive system consists of a high-torque, AC synchronous motor and machined pulley which drives the precision-milled belt around a non-resonant polymer inner platter. The platter system is comprised of a hand crafted from floated plate glass 13mm in thickness. This makes for a superb platter material as it has few resonance problems, is extremely flat and has good mass. This is usually covered by a vibration damping felt mat. The spindle bearing is machined to incredibly high tolerances to ensure smooth rotation. The deck itself is basically a giveaway when you factor in the quality of the tonearm Rega supplies with it. The deck also comes with a lid which encloses all four sides and is both smartly and functionally made of 'smoked' acrylic.
The Planar 3 comes equipped with one of the worlds finest tonearms, the RB300. The RB300 offers smooth operation and superb sound at a surprisingly low price. The RB300 has precision-balanced bearings, a resonance controlled tapered armtube, a fixed headshell, and damped cueing. The RB300, in particular, is one of those rare products that completely skews the price: performance ratio of an entire product category. And the RB300 is not just a favorite of those who buy the entire Rega package -- it's the most widely used OEM ‘arm on the market, as well as being the darling of the after-market.
The Rega P3 is available in the following colours - Black, silver, yellow, green, purple, blue, red and white.
REGA RB300 Tonearm
The RB300 is a fine example of a tonearm. It is designed as a budget tonearm but with its superb performance, it would not be out of place on decks that cost much more than the Rega Planar 3. The UK-based Company, ORIGIN LIVE has taken the RB300 one step further with its modifications. With the modifications in place the RB300 becomes much more rigid. Origin Live can also rewire the arm with silver litz-wire and high quality RCA-Phono connectors.
SETTING UP THE P3
Hardly challenging, setting up the Planar3 is relatively straightforward. The arm comes attached to the plinth, so all you will need to do is attach a cartridge, balance the arm, and adjust the biasing – also known as anti-skating. (Of course, the very first thing you want to do is to make sure that the turntable is level.)
My own preference of cartridge on the Planar3 is the Sumiko BluePoint. Your mileage on cartridges may differ. While some might object to using a cartridge that costs almost half the price of the turntable, as always I wanted a cartridge that would bring out the turntables strengths while hiding weaknesses. You should never skimp on the cartridge as it can make a larger positive sonic difference than a cheap cartridge on a more expensive turntable. The Planar3’s interconnects are fixed to the directly to the tonearm. The Planar3 has no ground wire, and instead grounds the table through the sheathing of an interconnect.
The Rega Planar3 is a manual deck, and if you require it to play 45’s you will have to remove the platter and adjust the drive belt. It takes only 30 seconds but it’s a bit bothersome at times. Thankfully, I only have a few 45's but if you are person who is into singles you may well do better to look elsewhere. Like a Technics SL1200 for example as that has auto speed switching.
With the Planar3, correct set-up and installation can make the difference between mediocre and outstanding performance. Rega, for instance, recommends using a special torque wrench for mounting the cartridge, rather than simply relying on feel.
With my own Planar3, I have it connected to the Moving Coil stage on my DeParavincini EAR834p PhonoStage. Now I admit that this is probably a bit of an overkill for the Planar (Hell, it cost me £550 which is another £100 UKP more than what I had already paid for the Deck and Cartridge) but as I intend going up to a Gyrodek or Orbe in the future i'm not too concerned at the moment.
I have my Planar3 supported by the manufacturers own wall-mounted rack. As an experiment to see how well the table deals with external vibration I wrapped the plinth and the supporting rack, and I jumped up and down. To my surprise, jumping up and down and walking around didn’t make the Planar3 skip a beat. Even knocking on the rack where the Planar3 sat didn’t cause any disturbances. Other than the rack itself, I attribute the P2’s terrific isolation to its three strategically located rubber feet. However, wrapping the plinth was a different story! The needle skipped. I expected as much, however, since unlike the Linn LP12/Thorens TD150, the platter is not independently suspended from the plinth. So no real problems with external vibration then?
IN USE
The Planar3 turntable is an all round great performer. It doesn't excel at any one thing, but is very competent at everything. Bass was well defined and not at all sluggish and sound staging is quite wide. When listening to her you will find that the Planar3 doesn't impart her own sonic signature onto the music as some do and it certainly won't get in the way of the speaker’s job and the music. This is really quite an accomplishment given its price and considering the performance you may get from competitive models.
What comes through best with the Planar3 is the music’s PRAT factor (Pace, Rhythm and Timing) which is one of the thing that both Rega and Naim excel at (funny how both companies have a non-nonsense almost flat-earth approach to manufacturing?). On The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out the rhythm of Dave’s playing is wonderfully present. Also Weather Report’s “Birdland,” off of their album Heavy Weather (Columbia 34418), is fast-paced and contains a wide variety of instruments playing together in harmony. When listening to the Planar3 you can’t help but tap a foot and get involved in the performers’ energy.
A more modern album, Version 2.0 by Garbage, is a difficult album for some turntables to reproduce accurately. The audio is a mix of Shirley Manson's trademark vocals but with such heavy bass beats and instrumentation that a turntable can easily get lost in all the layers. My old player, for example, has a terrible time with it. It can reproduce it, but it comes out flat and two-dimensional and the pace of the songs is lost. The Planar3 handles it with ease and confidence.
GRUMBLES AND FINAL THOUGHTS
Lets get one thing straight, I love my Planar3, and you can have it when you can pry it out of my cold dead hands! But it is not without its own little niggles, since the interconnects are attached, if you need more than the supplied two meters you’ll have to use extensions which may degrade sound quality. I don’t like my turntable being so close to my amplifiers or speakers. Of course, fixed interconnects also prevent one from experimenting with better interconnects. Quid, Pro Quo Rega!
Because of the large and heavy platter supplied with the Planar3, it can sometimes suffer from some pitch instability and piano recordings are always the first to demonstrate this effect. Different flaws irritate different people, but wow and flutter drives me bananas very fast!
Like most vinyl users, I like to have a separate ground wire, instead the turntable and tonearm are grounded through the sheath on the audio outputs, which to be frank is hardly ideal and is really a bit of a piss take when you look at the work that has gone into the rest of the deck. Because of this, when I have an LP playing on the deck with the dustcover down, there is a strong electrical charge on the table which attracts a lot of dust.
Another pain in the ass with the Planar3 is the dustcover. Since it only goes up to a 90º angle, it seems to fall down more times than not as the racking that the table sits on was perfectly level. A plea to the manufacturers, make the dustcover open past the vertical horizon, please. Having said that, Rega do state that the cover should be removed completely when in use so I can't say too much.
Aside from a few small grumbles, I still consider the Rega Planar3 to be a great performer overall and worth the occasional hassle. The Planar3 presents the music so well that you can hardly fault it. For listeners like myself whose record collection is less than 1/3 his CD collection, the Planar3 makes a persuasive argument. I enjoy hunting around the local record stores and jumble sales for records. Having said that I would say that around nine times out of ten I prefer to listen to CD’s instead of LP’s. Thus, I’m more concerned about my CD playback then I am about my LP playback. The Planar3, however, makes me pull out all my old LP records and listen to them all over again as if for the first time. It’s a real joy when a piece of audio equipment can make you rediscover albums and songs in a way that puts you closer to the music, enabling you to better understand the artists and their visions. It's no mean feat for a turntable to be able do this as there are many times ocassions when you upgrade your equipment and part with your hard earned cash and feel a little underwhelmed at the end of it all.
It should of course be said that Rega Planars have sold in telephone-number quantities. Can I personally justify nearly a £1000 (including Phono Pre) just for the vinyl playback part of my system for music that I listen to only 10% of the time? I’d like to think so. Since purchasing the Planar3, record playback has easily risen to one-quarter to one-third of my overall listening.. Listening to LP’s has become a more engaging and enjoyable experience for me. I can’t think of a higher calling for a piece of hi-fi gear.
What the other reviewers said:
Stereophile Recommended Component Class D
The Rega offers very good detail, depth, midrange neutrality, ambience, and precision of imaging, almost creeping into Class B. Works well with the Rega and Roksan tables, but also recommended by ST as an ideal substitute for the arms that come with the AR and Sonograph' tables.
Stereophile Recommended Component Class D
April 1998 Page 105
"Two synergistic mixes of no-nonsense deck with superb arm (included). Lack of environmental isolation may be problematic (see "Letters" in Vol. 16 No. 10). However, "outstanding performance," Michael Fremer crowed about the Planar 3. 'It's quiet, dynamicfree of obvious tracking distortion or other supposed analog problems, extremely well-balanced top to bottom, offers very deep and reasonably tight bass, and will do no damage to your precious records.' Then he threw down his analog gauntlet: "If you're an all-CD kind of audiophile, here's the kicker: I think the Rega 3 will blow your mind, even if you have a very-high-priced spread."
Stereophile
December 1996 Vol. 18 #12 Page 65, Analog Corner - Michael Fremer
"While I have recommended Rega turntables to many friends and to readers who contacted me, and I have heard them in other people's system, until now, I hadn't had one in my listening room. I'm glad I finally got the opportunity. Now I can say, with complete confidence, that the Regas are an incredible bargain. They sound and perform even better than I previously thought."
"The Rega excelled at providing the rhythmic thrust of the music, which I think the Brits pay more attention to than the Americans do."
"The Rega 3 sound with any of the cartridges I used was extremely well balanced tonally that was the biggest surprise. I expected a slight metallic hardness on top with some bloat on the bottom. What I got was very tight ballsy bass that in some ways worked better on blues and rock than what I got from the TNT and the Rockport Arm."
"In general the Rega 3 tended to move the soundstage forward, putting the images closer to the plane of the loudspeakers. It slightly brightened the overall tonality and provided more of a stiff etched field to the cymbals, female voices and other sources, with lots of high frequency energy."
Today I found a review of the REGA Planar 3 Turntable which I wrote back in 1999 and I want to share this with you as i'm rather proud of this little deck.
Mick
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rega Research is a company that enjoys being different. Some might even say it takes a perverse delight in not following convention. Its products are as distinctive as the way it chooses to run its business. Its ideas might seem strange at firstbut everything at Rega is geared to fulfil its mission statement, which is utterly straightforward and not the slightest bit complicated. Quite simply, Rega aims to make high quality products that faithfully reproduce music and sell at sensible prices. It is keen to develop new and exciting technologies and manufacturing techniques that perpetuate its ideals of quality and value for money.
The Southend-based company’s ‘deliberately different’ approach is interesting and thought provoking. When you listen to Rega products you will probably find yourself appreciating and understanding their approach. You certainly won’t be alone if you decide that Rega’s way of doing things has some merit. There are music lovers in all corners of the world who subscribe to its philosophy of building hi-fi that provides performance at affordable prices, components that do not rapidly become obsolete, and equipment that is so thoughtfully engineered that it carries a lifetime guarantee against manufacturing defects.
REGA PLANAR 3
Roy Gandy formed Rega back in 1973. It was a predictable move for a man working on design and development for the Ford motor company but spent most of what you would call his leisure time making turntables, building loudspeakers and installing friends' hi-fi systems.
The first turntable to come from Rega was the famous Planet, which went on sale in 1973. It was born out of Roy's frustration with contemporary record decks. He spent more time than he thought appropriate repairing new turntables and making them fit to deliver to customers so Roy Gandy along with the help of his business partner, Tony Relph (REGA = RElph + GAndy) decided to build their own and thus one of the worlds most famous decks was born.
In 1975, the Planet developed into the now world-famous Planar 2 and in 1977 was joined by the Planar 3. Within months of their introduction they quickly established themselves as the finest budget turntables of the day. More than twenty years later they are still in production, improved but not radically altered, and still regarded as the benchmark by which all others are judged.
REGA's first turntable the Planet. Complete with an RB200 Tonearm. Gratuitously pictured here for no other reason other than for nostalgia.
The Planar 3 achieved its position of market dominance and global acclaim despite being born to such a contrary parent. Its proud father did not announce its arrival with a flurry of advertising and promotion. To this day, Rega has deliberately avoided convetntional marketing startegies. Rega themselves have said "We prefer to spend what would be our promotional budget - if we worked like other companies - on developing products"
To date, over 300,000 Planar 3's have been manufactured and sold in over 25 countries throughout the world. In 1980, Rega had thirteen employees and exported to twelve countries. The company bought an old mill in Westcliff-on-Sea and transformed it into a factory. Other products followed, RB250 and RB300 in 1983, the Bias and Elys cartridges in 1988, Ela speakers in 1989 and the first amplifiers in 1991
The old mill became more and more cramped until a new factory was constructed in Southend in 1992. The new space enabled Rega to introduce three new models of speakers, an amplifier, a cartridge, a tuner, and most recently, a CD player.
In 1996, Rega has two factories, forty employees, and distributors in thirty countries. Rega's philosophy is to make high quality products at sensible prices, as a means of reproducing music as faithfully as possible. Rega is committed to the design and development of new and innovative products, both in hi-fi and other areas, that will perpetuate Regas' values of quality and value for the money.
REGA PLANAR 3 turntable.
Rega Research is known worldwide for their turntables and cartridges. Their two budget turntables, the Planar2 and Planar3, have been staples of the audio world for 25 years. Both give excellent bang-for-the-buck and a battleship build – unlike those pesky Linn LP12’s we usually hear so much about. Shit, with an LP12 it needs re-calibrating more of less every time it's used! That's not what I would call a reliable turntable at all.
One of the main advantages of the Planar2 & 3, is their simplicity. While you can choose to add any cartridge off the peg, Rega themselves have designed their own range of cartridges specifically designed for use in the RB250 and RB3200 tonearms. A three hole mounting system has been designed by Rega to allow simple installation of cartridges with the minimum of fuss. Simply drop in the three bolts and away you go, align the two main bolts then drop in the third bolt at the front et voila! overhang and everything is set to optimum. All you need to do then is set the tracking force, usually around 1.5-1.75 mg and away you go. There isn't even any VTA (Vertical Tracking Angle) to set as the tonearms are specifically set for the Rega cartridges.
So how often does one usually have to make adjustments to a Rega turntable? Not very often at all – in fact, I’ve had my own Planar3 for around two years now and nothing much has changed since when I first set it up. Rega turntables don’t even have VTA adjustment, so right there is one thing that can’t go wrong.
Indeed, Regas' reputation has been built on the success of its turntables. The Planar 3 represents a unique achievement of quality, performance, and value for the money. The plinth is dense non-resonant ultra low mass microfibre plinth laminated with highly rigid phenolic resin laminate. The belt drive system consists of a high-torque, AC synchronous motor and machined pulley which drives the precision-milled belt around a non-resonant polymer inner platter. The platter system is comprised of a hand crafted from floated plate glass 13mm in thickness. This makes for a superb platter material as it has few resonance problems, is extremely flat and has good mass. This is usually covered by a vibration damping felt mat. The spindle bearing is machined to incredibly high tolerances to ensure smooth rotation. The deck itself is basically a giveaway when you factor in the quality of the tonearm Rega supplies with it. The deck also comes with a lid which encloses all four sides and is both smartly and functionally made of 'smoked' acrylic.
The Planar 3 comes equipped with one of the worlds finest tonearms, the RB300. The RB300 offers smooth operation and superb sound at a surprisingly low price. The RB300 has precision-balanced bearings, a resonance controlled tapered armtube, a fixed headshell, and damped cueing. The RB300, in particular, is one of those rare products that completely skews the price: performance ratio of an entire product category. And the RB300 is not just a favorite of those who buy the entire Rega package -- it's the most widely used OEM ‘arm on the market, as well as being the darling of the after-market.
The Rega P3 is available in the following colours - Black, silver, yellow, green, purple, blue, red and white.
REGA RB300 Tonearm
The RB300 is a fine example of a tonearm. It is designed as a budget tonearm but with its superb performance, it would not be out of place on decks that cost much more than the Rega Planar 3. The UK-based Company, ORIGIN LIVE has taken the RB300 one step further with its modifications. With the modifications in place the RB300 becomes much more rigid. Origin Live can also rewire the arm with silver litz-wire and high quality RCA-Phono connectors.
SETTING UP THE P3
Hardly challenging, setting up the Planar3 is relatively straightforward. The arm comes attached to the plinth, so all you will need to do is attach a cartridge, balance the arm, and adjust the biasing – also known as anti-skating. (Of course, the very first thing you want to do is to make sure that the turntable is level.)
My own preference of cartridge on the Planar3 is the Sumiko BluePoint. Your mileage on cartridges may differ. While some might object to using a cartridge that costs almost half the price of the turntable, as always I wanted a cartridge that would bring out the turntables strengths while hiding weaknesses. You should never skimp on the cartridge as it can make a larger positive sonic difference than a cheap cartridge on a more expensive turntable. The Planar3’s interconnects are fixed to the directly to the tonearm. The Planar3 has no ground wire, and instead grounds the table through the sheathing of an interconnect.
The Rega Planar3 is a manual deck, and if you require it to play 45’s you will have to remove the platter and adjust the drive belt. It takes only 30 seconds but it’s a bit bothersome at times. Thankfully, I only have a few 45's but if you are person who is into singles you may well do better to look elsewhere. Like a Technics SL1200 for example as that has auto speed switching.
With the Planar3, correct set-up and installation can make the difference between mediocre and outstanding performance. Rega, for instance, recommends using a special torque wrench for mounting the cartridge, rather than simply relying on feel.
With my own Planar3, I have it connected to the Moving Coil stage on my DeParavincini EAR834p PhonoStage. Now I admit that this is probably a bit of an overkill for the Planar (Hell, it cost me £550 which is another £100 UKP more than what I had already paid for the Deck and Cartridge) but as I intend going up to a Gyrodek or Orbe in the future i'm not too concerned at the moment.
I have my Planar3 supported by the manufacturers own wall-mounted rack. As an experiment to see how well the table deals with external vibration I wrapped the plinth and the supporting rack, and I jumped up and down. To my surprise, jumping up and down and walking around didn’t make the Planar3 skip a beat. Even knocking on the rack where the Planar3 sat didn’t cause any disturbances. Other than the rack itself, I attribute the P2’s terrific isolation to its three strategically located rubber feet. However, wrapping the plinth was a different story! The needle skipped. I expected as much, however, since unlike the Linn LP12/Thorens TD150, the platter is not independently suspended from the plinth. So no real problems with external vibration then?
IN USE
The Planar3 turntable is an all round great performer. It doesn't excel at any one thing, but is very competent at everything. Bass was well defined and not at all sluggish and sound staging is quite wide. When listening to her you will find that the Planar3 doesn't impart her own sonic signature onto the music as some do and it certainly won't get in the way of the speaker’s job and the music. This is really quite an accomplishment given its price and considering the performance you may get from competitive models.
What comes through best with the Planar3 is the music’s PRAT factor (Pace, Rhythm and Timing) which is one of the thing that both Rega and Naim excel at (funny how both companies have a non-nonsense almost flat-earth approach to manufacturing?). On The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out the rhythm of Dave’s playing is wonderfully present. Also Weather Report’s “Birdland,” off of their album Heavy Weather (Columbia 34418), is fast-paced and contains a wide variety of instruments playing together in harmony. When listening to the Planar3 you can’t help but tap a foot and get involved in the performers’ energy.
A more modern album, Version 2.0 by Garbage, is a difficult album for some turntables to reproduce accurately. The audio is a mix of Shirley Manson's trademark vocals but with such heavy bass beats and instrumentation that a turntable can easily get lost in all the layers. My old player, for example, has a terrible time with it. It can reproduce it, but it comes out flat and two-dimensional and the pace of the songs is lost. The Planar3 handles it with ease and confidence.
GRUMBLES AND FINAL THOUGHTS
Lets get one thing straight, I love my Planar3, and you can have it when you can pry it out of my cold dead hands! But it is not without its own little niggles, since the interconnects are attached, if you need more than the supplied two meters you’ll have to use extensions which may degrade sound quality. I don’t like my turntable being so close to my amplifiers or speakers. Of course, fixed interconnects also prevent one from experimenting with better interconnects. Quid, Pro Quo Rega!
Because of the large and heavy platter supplied with the Planar3, it can sometimes suffer from some pitch instability and piano recordings are always the first to demonstrate this effect. Different flaws irritate different people, but wow and flutter drives me bananas very fast!
Like most vinyl users, I like to have a separate ground wire, instead the turntable and tonearm are grounded through the sheath on the audio outputs, which to be frank is hardly ideal and is really a bit of a piss take when you look at the work that has gone into the rest of the deck. Because of this, when I have an LP playing on the deck with the dustcover down, there is a strong electrical charge on the table which attracts a lot of dust.
Another pain in the ass with the Planar3 is the dustcover. Since it only goes up to a 90º angle, it seems to fall down more times than not as the racking that the table sits on was perfectly level. A plea to the manufacturers, make the dustcover open past the vertical horizon, please. Having said that, Rega do state that the cover should be removed completely when in use so I can't say too much.
Aside from a few small grumbles, I still consider the Rega Planar3 to be a great performer overall and worth the occasional hassle. The Planar3 presents the music so well that you can hardly fault it. For listeners like myself whose record collection is less than 1/3 his CD collection, the Planar3 makes a persuasive argument. I enjoy hunting around the local record stores and jumble sales for records. Having said that I would say that around nine times out of ten I prefer to listen to CD’s instead of LP’s. Thus, I’m more concerned about my CD playback then I am about my LP playback. The Planar3, however, makes me pull out all my old LP records and listen to them all over again as if for the first time. It’s a real joy when a piece of audio equipment can make you rediscover albums and songs in a way that puts you closer to the music, enabling you to better understand the artists and their visions. It's no mean feat for a turntable to be able do this as there are many times ocassions when you upgrade your equipment and part with your hard earned cash and feel a little underwhelmed at the end of it all.
It should of course be said that Rega Planars have sold in telephone-number quantities. Can I personally justify nearly a £1000 (including Phono Pre) just for the vinyl playback part of my system for music that I listen to only 10% of the time? I’d like to think so. Since purchasing the Planar3, record playback has easily risen to one-quarter to one-third of my overall listening.. Listening to LP’s has become a more engaging and enjoyable experience for me. I can’t think of a higher calling for a piece of hi-fi gear.
What the other reviewers said:
Stereophile Recommended Component Class D
The Rega offers very good detail, depth, midrange neutrality, ambience, and precision of imaging, almost creeping into Class B. Works well with the Rega and Roksan tables, but also recommended by ST as an ideal substitute for the arms that come with the AR and Sonograph' tables.
Stereophile Recommended Component Class D
April 1998 Page 105
"Two synergistic mixes of no-nonsense deck with superb arm (included). Lack of environmental isolation may be problematic (see "Letters" in Vol. 16 No. 10). However, "outstanding performance," Michael Fremer crowed about the Planar 3. 'It's quiet, dynamicfree of obvious tracking distortion or other supposed analog problems, extremely well-balanced top to bottom, offers very deep and reasonably tight bass, and will do no damage to your precious records.' Then he threw down his analog gauntlet: "If you're an all-CD kind of audiophile, here's the kicker: I think the Rega 3 will blow your mind, even if you have a very-high-priced spread."
Stereophile
December 1996 Vol. 18 #12 Page 65, Analog Corner - Michael Fremer
"While I have recommended Rega turntables to many friends and to readers who contacted me, and I have heard them in other people's system, until now, I hadn't had one in my listening room. I'm glad I finally got the opportunity. Now I can say, with complete confidence, that the Regas are an incredible bargain. They sound and perform even better than I previously thought."
"The Rega excelled at providing the rhythmic thrust of the music, which I think the Brits pay more attention to than the Americans do."
"The Rega 3 sound with any of the cartridges I used was extremely well balanced tonally that was the biggest surprise. I expected a slight metallic hardness on top with some bloat on the bottom. What I got was very tight ballsy bass that in some ways worked better on blues and rock than what I got from the TNT and the Rockport Arm."
"In general the Rega 3 tended to move the soundstage forward, putting the images closer to the plane of the loudspeakers. It slightly brightened the overall tonality and provided more of a stiff etched field to the cymbals, female voices and other sources, with lots of high frequency energy."
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