Modifying Regas !

Interesting site for DIY !!!

Not having a Rega tone arm I concentrate on the Rega Planar turntable itself.

Let me explain the history a little. I bought my Rega Planar 3 1979 after reading all its good reviews (hype?), and finding one without having to wait the 6 months waiting list being reported in the press (more hype?), I rushed out to Mansfield to buy the "only" Rega Planar available instantly.

Why did I do such a rash thing? I am unlike most Rega Planar owners in that I found it dry and lack lustre. It just didn't do melody, just rising edges falsely believed to be detail by the press gravy train in those days. OK, if you only play perfect records that have been perfectly mastered and have simple music it'll sound great, but with the records most of us own, then my honest opinion has to be that the Rega Planar 3 1979 vintage is utter crap!

I should have taken it back to the shop where I bought it there and then, but in 1979 all I knew about was how to make a disco sound good and get people up on a dance floor - I knew nothing about "hi-fi". Instead I embarked on a regime of trying to make it do the biz. The old Acos Lustre arm went in the trash bin (yes, there was a different tonearm before the RB's), and I splashed out on a "Roksan Tabriz Basic" tonearm and also an Ortofon VMS20EII cartridge. It wrought a more melodic sound, but far from what I expected. Remember, I had been exposed to plenty of live music by the rock bands of those days on my numerous visits to the city hall in nearby Sheffield, but more than that, the "raw sound" of numerous wanabe bands touring the English pubs and working mens clubs. The disco Garrard SP25 Mk3s and Mk4s equipped with Sonotone 9TAHC ceramic cartridges did the melody so much better!

So did my pal's Thorens TD125 with SME arm and AT Signet. The problem just had to be the Rega Planar 3 itself. Today and for the past few years I have dared to use a Technics SL turntable and that confirmed to me that the Acos Lustre arm had been an innocent victim.

So how the hell do I get the sound I was promised by the hi-fi press from this Rega Planar 3? I remember back in the 80's visiting another local hi-fi pioneer Dave Rusby at one of his demo evenings. Surprisingly he was using a Rega Planar 3 which had then moved on to the RB arm. Perhaps because it was in the company of a Sugden amp and Mr Rusby's own phono stage and using a good record that it sounded oh so different? Perhaps my Rega Planar 3 was a Friday afternoon job?

A few years ago I had wanted to sell turntables to complement my phono stages and approached Rega who politely said no. This may sound a little daft to you based on my comments above, but I have to work this problem through and cannot believe everybody tells lies - some maybe, but surely not everybody?

Instead, I approached the Moth Group and they offered me the Moth branded Rega Planars and I duly bought a Planar 2 to sell to a guy along with a Gram Amp. This had an MDF platter and the RB250 tonearm. My original 3 had the original glass platter. I set this up on a heavy coffee table and had a half day's listen before boxing it up. I used the AT95E cartridge which I'd also tried on my 3, and found to sound more melodic than the VMS20EII. The resulting sound of this Moth was less "tizzy" but laid back - too laid back - wooden and not as musical as it could be IMO. The customer was highly delighted which had me thinking if my expectations were simply too high?

Casting my mind back many years to Dave Rusby's demo I remembered how he played a record, removed the Rega mat and played some more. The result was much better and more melodic. He then demo'ed a mat made of thin dress reinforcement fabric which sounded just the same as no mat at all and then proceeded to give them away to anyone interested.

Today, right now I'm playing records without the mat. Is it any better? Let me put it this way: mine is a company dealing in making great music from phono stages. The Rega Planar 3 is at last being taken out of service. I will be bringing my old used Thorens TD125 out of mothballs. In fact the Opus3 Continuo with its problematic motor/capacitors could easily show Rega how things should be done.

But the thing that's really got me braced to expect the worst disaster I have ever faced is that Michael Fremer of Stereophile fame has recently auditioned my Reflex M with...................

......................a Rega Planar 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So that's our USA market dead I just know it.

My, ahem, second deck is a modified P3-24 (plus TT) with an Rega Exact cartridge. It works well with the Isokinetik acrylic platter and no mat. The Exact isn't perfect but it sounds very good for about £200 in the RB301 arm.

Graham I fear that you may be right if the belt is in decent nick. The P3-24 has the 24 volt AC motor upgrade you can retro-fit to a Planar 2 or 3, available online £85 I think. It sticks on with s/a pads and has a phase adjustment trim pot.