REGA PLANAR 3

In Roy Gandy (the founder of Rega Research) we truly have a legend of the hifi industry.In his words:"I'm not a past person.I don't reminisce".If he did he would find some amazing achievements in the award -winning world of his turntable design and understanding of the "beat of the music".Rega celebrated it's 43rd anniversary this year with the release of 3 new models,the Planar 3,Planar 2 and the Planar 1.Roy just keeps finding better ways to reproduce music and keeps astounding music listeners with turntables and electronics that provide musical enjoyment way beyond the expectation of the listener.

Roy says that whilst turntables,the mainstay of his business,he admits that it was a surprise that his orders were double his production.This inspired him to produce a no holds barred turntable,a concept design with no constraints.It would become the test bed for an entire range of new models.

To quote Roy....."We went to extremes on our theories.Talking about stiffness and bracing and lightness,we made the lightest of glass platters with the stiffest possible brace,with money not being any possible object at all."

The main chassis component is a carbon fibre  moulding with ceramic fibre braces forming the most rigid possible beam to link the platter bearing and arm mounting.Roy went to a Formula 1 supplier.....they made great gearbox castings for Formula 1 cars.They put that technology into that part..

Roy finds a total lack of understanding within  the industry of his ideas.He says:"The turntable is a whole.The arm, the cartridge and the turntable itself is a measuring machine and it measures vibration.You can't make it perfect.But you design the compromises to get the closest to perfection.In a number of conflicting engineering parameters Roy says:"the energy seems to come from the record.Once a record is rotated and the stylus starts moving there is energy"We see ourselves as a precision manufacturing company the platters in the more upmarket RP6 and RP8  turntables are made from Rega's traditional material,glass but with a a new approach.Roy Gandy found that it was was  feasible to make a glass platter with it's mass concentrated at the rim,by bonding 2 pieces of glass together.Possibly the greatest quote from Roy Gandy is"But we make tings for people,we're proud of making something that we'd like to have ourselves.It is for people that we have engineering techniques,production techniques to make lots of them as cheaply as possible,and work with our suppliers to make them as cheaply as possible.

If you have ever heard a Rega RP6 or above.....it is truly a jaw-dropping experience and a testament to experiencing Roy's philosophy of enjoying music.