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Rega Planar 8 Turntable: [ Ссылка ]
Rega has always had 3 core design philosophies they adhere to on every turntable they make.
1. Keep the platter spinning at the most constant speed possible
2. Minimize vibrations
3. The tonearm/cartridge combination extracts as much information as possible out of your record grooves.
The #Rega #Planar8 was designed to be light and stiff and has a unique design compared to other Rega models.
The hollow feet are made from lightweight rubber material called Santoprene and are reinforced with aluminum rings making them great for filtering out external energy.
The plinth is made out of Tancast 8, a polyurethane foam core sandwiched between two layers of black high-pressure laminate. As you can see, this is a very trimmed down set up designed to reduce mass.
The Planar 8 features Rega’s double bracing technology that couples the tonearm mount to the mount for the platter bearing on both sides of the plinth. This great design reduces energy absorption and unwanted resonances from getting into the playback system.
The subplatter which supports the main platter is machined from a single piece of aluminum. This is attached to a hardened steel spindle that sits inside a custom brass housing keeping energy from transferring down to the plinth.
The platter features Rega’s classic glass platter design. The platter is super critical in keeping things spinning at a constant speed. To achieve this The Planar 8 has a triple glass platter with most of the thickness on the perimeter of the platter. This gives a great flywheel effect for excellent speed stability, but keeps things lighter than if the whole platter was this thickness, very clever!
The Planar 8 motor is mounted from the bottom using a new coupling technique designed to keep stress off the motor body. The bottom mount also reduces stress on the motor and prevents unwanted energy transferring into the plinth.
The Planar 8 features Rega’s new belt, the EBLT drive belt. Developed alongside chemists, the new belt gives a more consistent elasticity which is pretty important in a #turntable belt. You’ll also notice that the Planar 8 features two belts giving it an even better speed consistency.
The Neo PSU speed control box feeds a perfect signal to the 24V AC motor. Keeping the motor power supply away from the table is also a great way to reduce noise. Each Neo is also individually tuned to the P8 motor of its matching table.
Finally, the tonearm - another new design called the RB880. This aluminum and stainless steel beauty have far better tonearm bearings than their other models, with tolerances down to 1000th of a millimeter! There is absolutely zero chatter in the bearing and it just feels totally free of any friction.
The phono cables coming out of the P8 are of very high quality and even have locking RCA ends for a tight-fitting connection.
When you think about all this great new tech Rega put into the Planar 8, you can be sure it's going to be a great performer.
We used the Aphetta 2 with the Planar 8 for our testing. You can read more details about our test records and associated gear in our written review.
What astounded us was how alive the Planar 8 made the music sound. We have only heard a handful of tables that make our records come to life like this.
Another stunner was how little surface noise we heard. The background was dead silent. Finally, the combination of the new RB880 arm and Aphetta 2 cartridge tracks about as well as anything we have heard. We could not find a record it could not sail through.
The P8 comes in three versions, without cartridge, with Rega’s Ania moving coil, and with their Aphetta 2 moving coil. We highly recommend you go for the Aphetta 2 version. The sound this combo produces is full of energy, separates instruments amazingly well, tracks like crazy, and gives you a totally silent background. You’ll save $700 on the package deal and will have one of the best tables we have ever heard!
MUSIC: Ryan Little - [ Ссылка ]
