REGA PLANAR 8 TURNTABLE

TURNTABLE

We review and test not only the new Rega Planar 8 turntable, but also the Rega Apheta 2 MC phono cartridge. How did they fare?

If you think that designing, engineering and building a turntable might be a fairly straight-forward task, I totally recommend you invest in a unique and exceedingly interesting book titled ‘A Vibration Measuring Machine’ that is self-published by Rega*. It’s actually three books in one. The first part of the book is a history of the company itself, which is extremely interesting. The third part is about the people who work there, which is less so. The second book is a complete explanation of the ‘black art’ of turntable construction, with separate sections for the plinth, the motor, the drive system, the platter, the bearing, the tonearm, the cartridge, and this part of the book is absolutely outstanding: It really should be required reading for anyone who intends to acquire what Rega founder and designer Roy Gandy whimsically refers to as a ‘vibration

measuring machine’ because, as he explains in the book, essentially what is required of a turntable is that it measures the vibrations in the groove of a long-playing record with the greatest accuracy possible, because those vibrations are typically 0.005mm and may be as small as just one single micron (0.001mm): ‘ This means that any unwanted movement between the stylus and the disc of 0.001mm can create a massive measurement inaccuracy of 100%.’

The equipmenT

The first time you see a Rega Planar 8 in the flesh (so to speak) you’ll likely be shocked by its skeletal appearance, even if you’ve been pre-warned by seeing a photograph. It’s really completely unlike any turntable you’ve likely seen before, because essentially there is no plinth. ‘And why should there be?’ I can hear Roy asking, this because in essence, all any plinth is required to do is provide a platform to support the drive motor, the main platter bearing and the tonearm.

The first time you lift a Rega Planar 8 (without its triple laminate glass platter, about which more later) you’ll likely be shocked by how little it weighs. Unlike most other turntable designers, who make their plinths as heavy as possible, Rega has always made lightweight plinths, because it says that a turntable plinth or subchassis should minimise the effects of airborne vibrations, external structure-borne vibrations and any vibrations from the motor and bearing. Gandy says: ‘ to achieve this, both surface area and mass need to be kept to a minimum (because) the higher the mass the more vibration is transferred throughout the structure and to the structures to which it is joined’. He continues, in order to make his point perfectly clear: ‘ Mass doesn’t damp vibration… it transfers it.’

The plinth on the Planar 8 is one of the lightest Rega has ever made, because it’s made using of a composite material comprised of an ultra-lightweight Tancast 8 polyurethane foam core that is sandwiched between two layers of what Rega refers to as ‘high pressure laminate’ or HPL. If you disregard the hightech nature of the materials Rega is using (Tancast 8 was originally developed for the aerospace industry), the construction is not unlike that of an Australian surfboard.

The construction of the Rega 8 turntable’s plinth is not unlike that of an Australian surfboard

Says Rega: ‘ This new construction makes the new Planar 8 skeletal plinth 30 per cent lighter than the original RP8 while offering increased rigidity over the previous model.’

As for that high pressure laminate, it’s actually a Polaris HPL made by Italian manufacturer Abet Laminati, which has been making synthetic resins for more than 60 years.

The section of the plinth between the platter bearing and the tonearm mount is reinforced and stiffened by an added layer of metal on top of the HPL and some other material (maybe magnesium or an added HPL layer… I couldn’t determine) underneath. Also underneath the plinth are four rubber (I was told that it’s Santoprene, but was not able to confirm this) feet that are not height-adjustable, so you’ll need to sit the Rega Planar 8 on a perfectly flat, perfectly level surface to obtain best performance. One option here that I would like to wholeheartedly recommend to you is a Rega wall bracket, an ultra lightweight aluminium wall bracket available in black or white that, unlike any solution that involves placing the turntable on something that’s ultimately connected to your floor (the bounciest bit of any home), will almost always provide either complete or ‘best’ isolation.

As with all Rega turntables, the platter is made from glass… or, to be more specific, because importantly, it isn’t just a piece of glass, it’s actually three-pieces of two different types of high-quality Pilkington glass that are bonded together, rather like the technique used for the fly-wheels of old-fashioned boat engines, where there was a thick section around the circumference, then a thinner section connecting this to the drive shaft. This technique delivers the best fly-wheel effect for the smallest diameter and the minimum weight. Rega has used exactly the same technique with its glass platter, except that it has three thicknesses across the width of the platter, running from the thickest around the circumference to the thinnest nearest the spindle. The glass platter is topped by a black felt slip mat.

Just to be clear, when I stated in the previous paragraph that ‘all’ Rega turntables used glass platters, this is not actually true, because when Rega formed the company back in July 1973 (it was then a partnership by Tony (Re)lph and Roy (Ga)ndy, but is now solely owned by Gandy) its first turntable (the Planet) did not use a glass platter… that didn’t happen until 1976 and the introduction of the Planar 2. Also, a few other Rega turntables over the intervening 46 years have employed other platter materials, notably the ceramic platter of the Planar 9.

Underneath the glass platter is an aluminium sub-platter that rotates on a hardened tool steel spindle inside a custom brass housing and is driven by two round belts made from ethylene propylene diene terpolymer that attach to a pulley mounted directly to the shaft of a 24-volt synchronous a.c. motor. The motor is mounted to the plinth using a technique Rega first used on its flagship Naiad turntable that is said to reduce the transmission of vibration from the motor to the plinth while simultaneously allowing less movement of the motor in order to improve speed stability. As for the belts themselves, Rega says that the bespoke rubber compound from which they’re made has been in development for three years, and is manufactured on tools designed by Rega itself that ensure they’re ‘perfectly round’ and ‘dimensionally accurate’. EPDT itself is said to have a more consistent elasticity modulus than any other type of flexible turntable belt, while any remaining inconsistencies in elasticity are then eliminated by the use of dual belts, rather than just the one.

The 24-volt a.c. supply is delivered to the motor by Rega’s Neo power supply (PSU) which not only offers a super-clean 24-volts that is completely unaffected by any changes in the mains/line voltage, but also uses a digital signal processor (DSP) in combination with a crystal oscillator to provide a stable a.c. frequency, and offers the possibility of fine speed adjustment. I say ‘possibility’ simply because Rega says it hand-tunes each Neo PSU specifically for the Planar 8 turntable for which it’s providing the power… it doesn’t just ship a ‘standard’ Neo with each turntable. This means that when you get your Neo/ Planar 8 it will rotate at exactly the selected speed (33.33 and 45rpm) without the need for adjustment.

However, in the event the speed ever does drift, or you wish the platter to rotate at a non-standard speed (perhaps so you can play along with an LP using a fixed-pitch musical instrument, such as a piano) it is possible to adjust the speed using a small hex key and the appropriate hole on the rear panel. Rega says that the Neo PSU not only drives the motor, but also: ‘ the turntable’s anti-vibration circuit, which is situated beneath the turntable.’ I looked in vain underneath the turntable for this anti-vibration circuit. According to local Australian distributor Synergy Audio Visual, there is circuitry inside the motor that sends signals back to the PSU which are used to adjust the DSP’s operating parameters—presumably for voltage and/or frequency—to minimise motor vibration. [Editor’s Note: We requested more information from Rega about this, but it was not made available to us at the time of going to press.]

Rega RB880 ToneaRm

The tonearm fitted to the Rega Planar 8 is Rega’s own RB880, but with an improved pre-loaded vertical bearing assembly constructed using aluminium and stainless-steel components. You can’t really see this (well you can… just… if you peer through the back of the assembly housing the bias adjuster) but what you can see quite easily is that the new RB880 now has a thinner stainless steel counterweight, which the company says ‘ allows greater adjustability and compatibility.’

This arm is a single-piece moulding, which is great for rigidity, but means the headshell is an integral part of the arm and cannot be removed. This makes installing cartridges more difficult than it might otherwise be, plus it effectively rules out swapping different cartridges in and out of the tonearm. Why might you do this? I use an arm with a removable headshell so that I can use a special mono 78 cartridge when playing 78s, a low-cost cartridge with a spherical diamond for playing old, worn LPs, and a good-quality cartridge with an elliptical (removable) stylus for day-to-day use. I reserve my top-line moving-coil cartridge for use with brand new records, which I always rip to hard disk while they’re new, and for critical listening sessions using the vinyl direct. Having a removable headshell makes all this easy. I’d never do it if the headshell were not removable.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll realise that Rega does not believe in removable headshells because they will always be slightly ‘loose’ and, as Gandy correctly says: ‘ Any unwanted movement between the stylus and the disc of 0.001mm can create a massive measurement inaccuracy of 100%.’

Tracking force for the RB800 is not applied via the usual static method. On the RB800 you move the counterweight along the tonearm shaft until the arm is perfectly balanced, then tracking force is dynamically applied via a spring system activated by a knurled knob adjacent to the tonearm pivot.

You can apply downforce of up to 3.75 grams using this knob, but a warning in advance that you might need to wear a head torch and magnifying glasses when using it, because the knob is black and the engravings on it are also black, so it’s not the easiest to read. I prefer to use a digital gauge to measure down-force, and according to this gauge the Rega’s knob calibrations were accurate, though I’d still always recommend using an external down-force measurement gauge when setting up any turntable: You don’t need to go to the expense of a digital gauge; there are any number of high-quality, low-cost, passive gauges available.

Anti-skating is also set using a spring system, with calibrations from ‘0’ to ‘2’. The lack of calibration points on the anti-skating scale would seem to tie in with Rega’s philosophy that although some antiskating is desirable, extreme accuracy is not essential. The fact that even at the ‘0’ position there’s still some anti-skating force applied to the arm would also seem to bear out this observation.

The tonearm rest has a locking catch that works very effectively, which is a plus in my book. It’s very easy to damage a cartridge by accidentally knocking a tonearm from its rest.

Whereas many turntables either are not supplied with connecting cables at all, or they’re removable, the Rega Planar 8 not only comes with its own phono cables, but they’re extremely high-quality cables indeed, fitted with equally high-quality locking phono plugs.

The cables are permanently attached, so you can’t remove them, but since they’re 94cm in length, they should be sufficiently long for most system connections. As with all Rega turntables, there is no earth wire, because Rega says it provides grounding via one of the shields on the RCA cable.

Although the Rega Planar 8 comes with a ‘dustcover’, the dustcover that is supplied does not protect your records from becoming dusty while they’re playing, because it’s designed in such a way that it can only be used when the turntable is not playing.

The Rega Planar 8’s ‘dustcover’ is just a sculpted piece of plastic that sits flat on the platter mat, preventing the mat itself from getting dusty when you’re not using the turntable, and simultaneously providing a modicum of protection for the tonearm (but not the cartridge) against accidental knocks and bumps.

Although the Rega Planar 8 comes with a ‘dustcover’ the dustcover that is supplied does not protect your records...

Rega apheta 2 CaRtRidge

My review sample Rega Planar 8 came with a Rega Apheta 2 moving-coil cartridge pre-fitted to the RB880. If you choose to do the same, you’ll not only save yourself the trouble of installing and aligning a cartridge, but you’ll save $300 on the cost of an Apheta 2, because the retail price of a Rega Planar 8 is $3,499, and the retail of an Apheta 2 is $2,199, but if you buy a Rega Planar 8 with the Apheta 2 pre-installed, the price is only $5,299. If you’d prefer a less costly cartridge, Rega also offers a discount if you order the Rega Planar 8 with an Ania moving-coil cartridge (usually $999) pre-fitted. In this case, a Rega Planar 8 with an Ania pre-fitted retails for $4,299, a saving of $199.

The Apheta 2 moving-coil cartridge takes the tech Rega developed for its original Apheta to a whole new level. So far as the generator is concerned, the coil is now wound (by hand!) around an iron cross that’s just half the size of the one used in the Apheta, enabling a huge reduction in moving mass. The cartridge body is a complete redesign that combines a single-piece, anodised aluminium body with a rigid polymer cover that not only protects the internal wiring, but lets you see inside the cartridge, to admire the wondrous workpersonship. The magnets are neodymium, the cantilever is aluminium and the stylus is a nude diamond with a line-contact (‘Vital’) profile.

Whereas many moving-coil cartridges use a tie wire to restore the cantilever to its neutral point, the Apheta 2 uses a rhomboid pivot to do this, in order to avoid the use of a tie wire. According the Rega, it does this because it says that tie-wires create high-amplitude high-frequency resonances (at 8–12kHz) that are usually removed by incorporating a foam damper along with the tie wire. The problem with this ‘solution’, according to Rega, is that the foam rubber deteriorates with age and when it does, the structure will ‘vibrate’ and ‘ring’.

Rega says that its ‘rhomboid’ pivot is unique, and the rhomboid shape of its pivot point may very well be unique, but some other moving-coil cartridge manufacturers also avoid the use of tie-wires and damping foams via the use of shaped pivot points or other methods, for example the system used in Miyajima cartridges.

The Rega Apheta 2 is a low-output device (nominally 350μV) so you’ll certainly need to use a step-up device. If you choose to use an active device, and it has adjustable input settings, you should set that device to present a load impedance of 100Ω and a load capacitance of 1,000pF.

It’s very important to note that in common with almost all moving-coil cartridges, the Rega Apheta 2’s stylus is not user-replaceable, so when that stylus becomes too worn to provide playback to your satisfaction (which could be anywhere between 500 and 2,000 hours depending on how critically you listen, so between one and four years depending on how often you listen) Rega recommends that you replace the cartridge, using its ‘new for old’ cartridge swap system. This is where you take your worn-out Apheta 2 back to your hi-fi dealer who will then sell you a new one at 20 per cent off whatever the current RRP might be. At today’s prices, this means that a replacement Apheta 2 will cost you $1,759. The alternative to this ‘Aladdin’s Lamp’ arrangement is to commission a specialist cartridge repair outfit to re-tip your Apheta 2. Typically, such a re-tip will run you around $300 for a Shibata profile diamond, around $400 for a line contact (Vital) profile diamond and up to around $600 if you want an even-more exotic profile. (These prices do not include shipping and insurance costs.)

in Use and Listening sessions

Rega recommends that you position the Neo PSU as far away from the phono cartridge as possible, which isn’t hard to do, as the connecting cord is an incredible 1.86 metres long (so Rega obviously wants you to move it a looong way away!). Note also that the PSU doesn’t get its power from your mains supply… it is connected (via another long—1.8 metre—cable) to a ‘plug-pack’ power supply that first converts the 240V a.c. from your mains down to 24-volts before sending this voltage to the Neo PSU. I found this plugpack could get a little warm after a while, so I’d consider switching it off whenever you’re not using the turntable. This is not only the safest option, but also the ‘greenest’ since the plug-pack draws (and dissipates as heat) 0.42 watts even when you’re not using it. When you are using it, it draws around 10-watts. I was a little surprised at the plugpack’s output voltage, because usually, in order to provide a really stable 24-volt voltage (as in the case of Rega’s PSU) it’s preferable for the supply voltage to be a little higher than 24-volts.

As noted earlier, the Neo PSU enables electronic speed change between 33.33rpm and 45rpm via a front panel switch, and when you change speeds, the colour of the Rega logo on the front panel changes to indicate your selected speed. I was rather surprised to find that the display colour for ‘45rpm’ is green and that for ‘33.33rpm’ is red. I found this surprising because Rega’s ‘corporate’ colour is green, so I would have thought it would have chosen this colour for the speed that will undoubtedly be the most-used.

For the purpose of this review, I used a Rega Aura Reference MC Stage as a head amplifier, kindly loaned by the local distributor to aid with the preparation of this review. It’s by far the largest and heaviest phono pre-amp I have ever used. It measures 435×350×88mm and weighs 13kg. It offers resistance load settings of 50Ω, 100Ω, 150Ω, 300Ω and 400Ω, capacitance load settings of 1000pF, 2000pF, 3200pF, 4300pF, and 5700pF and has two gain settings—63.5dB and 69.5dB. It also offers a mute switch and a mono switch. As well as unbalanced outputs, the Rega Aura also offers balanced outputs and you can use either or both, depending on your application.

The Aura is also the most expensive phono preamplifier I’ve ever had in my own home, because it retails for $7,999. To my mind, Rega’s excellent Aria MM/MC phono stage would have been a better ‘fit’ with this Planar 8/Apheta 2 combo, but I wasn’t about to knock back a chance to hear an Aura in my own system.

Speed accuracy was spot-on. I used the old-fashioned strobe method to check this (though it can’t be that old-fashioned, because Rega currently sells a strobe card/strobe light kit, and recommends their use in the Planar 8 Owners’ Manual) and found that the Rega Planar 8’s rotational speed was exactly 33.33rpm and 45rpm (I was using a 230V/50Hz mains, though thanks to the provision of the Rega PSU, it should make no difference if you’re using 120V/60Hz, or some other variant.)

For my check on wow and flutter levels (and the sound of a grand piano) I turned to Erik Satie’s best-known works, his Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes. These days they’re probably best-known because at some stage, every child who is learning piano will have one or the other of these works propped up on the lyre by their piano teacher. Indeed this is exactly how I discovered Satie, and also how I learned that just because a piece of music sounds simple, and the score looks straightforward on the page, it doesn’t mean that it’s easy to play! Indeed while listening to Gymnopédies (I prefer my 20-year-old version by Reinbert de Leeuw, but I am not sure you will still be able to get this on vinyl, though it’s certainly available on CD) I reflected that Satie is so famous for his so-called ‘minimalism’ and ‘novelty’ compositions that many people don’t realise that he was a true musical pioneer, the first to use a prepared piano, the first to write ‘background’ music, and the first to compose music specifically for film (René Clair’s Entr’Acte)… plus of course he did invent minimalist music decades before Philip Glass or Stephen Reich (listen to his Avant-dernières pensées!). And of course he also thought of simplifying male attire ‘way before Philip Adams, having worn nothing except the one single suit for ten years straight. (Actually, it was more than one, but the seven grey velvet corduroy suits he did wear over this period were identical.) John Cage famously said of Satie: ‘ It’s not a question of Satie’s relevance. He’s indispensable.’

As you can see, my mind tends to wander when listening to Satie, but I remained sufficiently focused to be able to hear from the purity of the sustained piano notes that the Rega Planar 8 was totally free from wow and flutter, and that the sound of the Apheta 2 was extraordinarily good… exceptional in fact. The tracking was exemplary: whenever a key was struck on the piano, the attack of the cartridge was immediate and precise, plus there was no overhang at all. I was hearing exactly what de Leeuw was playing, nothing more, nothing less. And there was not a skerrick of distortion audible until I reached the innermost grooves, and I think we can put that down to the pressing, rather than the Apheta 2. The Apheta 2’s spectral balance was excellent, with a beautifully full sound in the lower octaves and a tinkling purity in the upper octaves, yet behind everything the percussive nature of the instrument was ever-present, just as it should be. The Rega Apheta 2 proved itself more than capable of reproducing the sonic complexities of full orchestral works, indeed I imagine that it will be the quality of the pressings you play that will limit its performance, rather than the performance of the cartridge itself, so if your LP collection has a goodly proportion of half-speed masters, 180g special pressings and the like, I think you’re in for a treat: Probably, indeed you’ll be blown away! I was certainly blown away by my newly-acquired (but second-hand) version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony by Seiji Ozawa and the New Philharmonia Orchestra, on two Philips LPs. I know Beethoven’s Ninth is most famous for its glorious choral finale in the fourth movement, in which soloists and chorus sing Frederich Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy (‘An die Freude’) and I have to admit that I’m a sucker for it as well. But everyone seems to overlook the opening bars, which at the original performance were totally different to any symphony ever composed previously. Rather than introducing a theme, Beethoven first just hints at what might develop, using different rhythms, sounds and part-melodies to introduce a sense of suspense, a quiet before a storm. The storm begins with the first thematic element, those triple ascending notes that seem to conclude… but then, to our dismay, don’t. Then there’s the sound of the trumpet entry which, as delivered by the Planar 8/Apheta 2/ Aura combo, was heraldic in its glory, with the brassy sound delivered immaculately. And when the flutes chime in shortly after, playing in unison with the clarinets, I could hear all the instruments separately… yet together. And under it all the tympani pounding out the bass, with the sound of felts hitting calf skin making my own skin crawl. Totally majestic! When the fourth movement starts, after the initial orchestral flurry, we hear that incredible massed string sound, and yet again the Rega combo does more than rise to the occasion, it really nails it! The depth and vibrancy of the string sound is breathtaking.

When the massed choir finally enters, the Rega Apheta 2 captures and delivers not only the individual voices, but the acoustic of the hall as well.

ConClusion

Just as most famous orchestras around the world are now using blind auditions for prospective members so the appointment panellists can’t judge by age, gender or physical attractiveness, I would recommend you do exactly the same when auditioning Rega’s Planar 8, because I don’t think it looks particularly attractive and also, visually at least, you don’t appear to be getting a lot for your money.

But pause and take a moment to think about why you’re buying a turntable in the first place. Is it just so that it looks good in your listening room, or that it looks as if you paid a lot of money for it? Or is it so that you can enjoy great sound from your LP collection?

If your answer is the latter, you’ll know what to buy! Colin Lawson *Rega’s book A Vibration Measuring Machine (ISBN: 978-1-782-80781-0), written by Bill Philpot, Paul Messenger and Roy Gandy, is available only in hardcover, and only direct from Rega [www.rega.co.uk/a-vibration-measuring-machine.html] and at the time of going to press costs £39.50 plus—for us here in Australia—£19.00 for postage.