Lately it seems that the more Rega charges for one of its turntables, the less you get—and from Rega’s performance perspective that’s a good thing.
While some turntable designs pile on the mass, hoping to tame resonances and better isolate the record from the outside world, Rega has long advocated ultralow-mass designs. What’s up with that?
Rega defines a turntable as a “vibration measuring machine.” Therefore, they contend—and this is putting it as simply as possible—the lower the mass, the less energy the system can store, only to be later released to confuse and muddy up the sound. Over-damp a turntable and it can sound dull, dead, and lifeless. I’ve reviewed a few of those.
The only vibration Rega wants to measure is in real time, at the stylus-groove interface, after which it should quickly dissipate.
Only over the last decade or so, as new “space age” materials have been developed, has Rega been able to truly test and fully implement its ideas—as in the now–near-legendary Rega Naiad, a ca-$45,000 ultracompact carbon fiber–based Rega that’s not practical to manufacture and so serves more as an auto show “concept car” (footnote 1). Among the Naiad’s unusual features is a costly, difficult-to-manufacture, almost friction-free ceramic bearing.
Rega first put its Naiad research to practical use in the Planar 8, reviewed at Analog Planet. Like the Planar 8, the new Planar 10 (or P10) uses for its minimalist plinth a super-lightweight Tancast 8 polyurethane foam core that Rega sandwiches (you could say squeezes) between a very thin, super-rigid, high-pressure laminate.
It’s not quite as effective as the carved carbon-fiber plinth Naiad uses, but then neither is the Planar 10’s price $45,000! The P10, with RB3000 tonearm but with no cartridge, costs $5695—only $200 more than the older and considerably less revolutionary RP10. With Apheta 3 cartridge, the cost is $6695, which is the same price as the old RP10 with Apheta 2 cartridge.
Rega minimizes mass by leaving the plinth’s sandwiched edges exposed. Rega also achieves minimal mass by carving away all material except what’s necessary to contain the tonearm, bearing, motor mount, and three feet, which means a great deal of unnecessary and potentially energy-storing real estate has been removed to produce a truly skeletal structure. With that much mass removed, only a super-rigid material could remain viable.
There’s not much left, in materials or weight, as I noted when I unpacked it. Rega warns you to handle the plinth carefully lest you dent or crunch an edge, though once it’s in place, you are not likely to harm it. The result is an incredibly stiff and rigid structure that Rega’s Phil Freeman told me is 30% lighter than the one used on the older RP8. No doubt it’s also much lighter than the older RP10.
The new foam laminate is easier to machine, Freeman told me, but making it cosmetically acceptable (a pleasing black color) proved more difficult. He talks about that process in the Planar 8 review/interview cited above.
Like the P8, the P10 sits on three semisoft footers developed for the Planar 6. These incorporate an elastomer called Santoprene, which is said to be sufficiently soft to provide a “sensible” degree of isolation but not so soft that it would damp the turntable; the latter, Freeman told me, would be “really quite bad.” The footer construction is a complex molding with many hollow sectional areas contained within. For its size, he says, the foot is remarkably lightweight.
Because the turntable does not have a suspension or isolation system—and because it has ultralow mass—the surface you place it on will have a profound effect on its sonic performance.
For some time now, Rega has incorporated on most of its turntables a pair of structural braces between the platter bearing and the tonearm mount—one on the plinth’s top and one below—intended to increase rigidity. To reduce mass, the braces, like the plinth, have cut-away areas. While the Planar 8’s brace is made from a phenolic material, the P10’s is ceramic on top and phenolic on bottom. Freeman told me that producing, adapting, and perfecting the ceramic top plate took more than a year’s work.
Aesthetically, the ceramic material blends well with the new white ceramic platter (the P8’s is of a glass laminate) that’s similar to the one used on the old RP10. It’s made for Rega by a company that makes missile nose cones of the same compressed, fired, and diamond-cut ceramic oxide powder.
Though the platter weighs a relatively light 5lb, its outer-edge mass concentration produces a flywheel effect that’s claimed to produce greater speed consistency.
When I wrote about the P8, skeptical AnalogPlanet readers were concerned that the rigid platter bearing/tonearm mount connection would directly transmit motor noise between the two. But using a stethoscope, I found on the P8 and again on the P10 minimal—barely— audible—noise transmittal, not at all different from what was heard elsewhere on the plinth, meaning the added rigidity came with no downside.
The P10 features a new and significantly improved version of a bearing assembly introduced on the P8. The P10 version uses a single-piece aluminum subplatter/hardened tool steel spindle spinning within a custom brass housing. This assembly’s subplatter is similar but not identical to the P8’s and, according to Rega, represents a complete redesign. It also has a wider diameter top section that accepts the ceramic platter’s wider diameter opening, which produces somewhat better coupling and stability.
The means by which the assembly attaches to the plinth is critical for rigidity, as is the assembly’s center of gravity, both of which are objects of Rega’s intense scrutiny, and both of which can be seen in the cross-sectional photo.
The motor-mounting system is an adaptation of what was developed for the Naiad, though here it’s said to be further improved. The 24V, low-vibration motor—each motor is individually tuned to the supplied motor-drive system—mounts from the plinth bottom, which is said to limit vibrational energy transfer to the plinth and to improve rigidity as well as stabilize its position relative to the subplatter, which should result in better speed stability.
Atop the motor, a pair of round belts riding on a dual-grooved, machined aluminum pulley drive the subplatter. Rega’s attention to drive-belt material and fabrication is fetishlike: You can see that as well in the above-mentioned video interview. Rega manufactures its own belts instead of buying less costly, higher-tolerance “off the shelf” ones.
Like the P8, the P10 uses a pair of belts made of EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer), newly formulated by a recently retired chemist. Rega claims the new belts provide even better speed consistency than was previously attainable. The material produces a more even stretch and compression.
Eventually, Freeman told me, Rega plans to use various iterations of EPDM belts throughout the line, partly because the material lasts longer but mainly because it performs better.
Footnote 1: You can see it in part five of AnalogPlanet’s Rega video factory tour.