Rega purchase-Help Please!

[bbs1982]

A friend of mine has offered me a Rega Planar 3 turntable pretty cheap. He said before buying it I could borrow it and try it.

I have since borrowed this off the person and set it up.

I have been listening to it and its sounds sweet- better than my old mans old B&O. It has a solid sound, no weariness in it at all- and only a couple of my older vinyls have been poor on it (possibly static and some was just damage)

Thing is, its at least 7 years old, I dont know what the tone arm is coz I cant find a number or model on it but I presume its a Rega one (its fully adjustable and my mate says that the tone arm was over £200), it has a Linn k9 cartridge(?), 1/4 inch glass platter.

I have been offered it for £100 which is about £10-£20 over ebay price without delivery, but this thing weighs a ton so postage would be steep and I would be able to hear one off ebay.

Not knowing much about this, and my old mans B&O cost a fortune in its day so dont wanna compare to that, i would appreciate it if someone could say if it was worth buying, say, compared to a Pro-Ject turnable of similar price

[Nike]

I would say go for it for that price.
The arm should be an RB300 I think. I've had mine for 7/8 years now and I still really like it.
Back then was about £300 + cartridge.
By coincidence, the last t/t I had before the Rega was an old B&O. There really is no comparison, the Rega is far superior.

[alexs2]

As Nike has said,despite the cost of the B&O,the Rega is a far better piece of equipment,which was designed to do the job it does very well,rather than being a piece of art/design.

The price seems right,spares etc are readily available,as are upgrades in the form of arms and cartridges(the Rega arms will certainly do justice to far better cartridges than the K9).

[Londondecca]

Very good TT and arm but I would consider upgrading the K9. The Rega responds well to good isolation so it might be worth considering what you will place it on.

Give the Rega a good clean and ensure the cartridge is correctly aligned and setup

[michael orme]

Buy the Rega, if it is a Rega 3, with a RB300 arm, it is worth more than £100. I have seen the glass platter alone go for £60-£80 on Ebay. No one seems keen on Rega cartridges though, perhaps they work best with Rega amps and speakers. Goldring 1042 seems a safe bet, about £115.
Michael Orme. Rhyl. UK.

[shahedz]

like everyone above i would say go for it, i think the price is reasonable, i have a pro-ject and for the price the pro-ject are fantastic - but overall the rega i think would easily outperform the cheap projects

[SKA.face]

The planer 3 is a great budget deck,that will allow you to play with it and modify it to make it better.The arm is'nt adjustable if you mean VTA,Rega arm arn't VTA adjustable unless you buy spacers.

You can later improve the deck with the P3 motor upgrade,Origin live arm mods,and heed audio power supply.I think the shure Mx97e is a nice cart for it.

[overkill]

Agree with the above - buy it. At that price you can't go wrong. 7 years is nothing for a TT. My Xerxes is coming up to it's 18th Birthday soon and still going strong. The tonearm will be an RB300. Have a look at the right hand side of it as you look from the front. There will be a tracking force dial. The RB250 doesn't have one.

As for comparing the Rega with a B&O TT, it isn't one really. B&O are Phillips guts with an impressive outer shell. They are made to be musical fashion accessories, fully remote, great looking, just not pieces of precision hi-fi kit. Each has it's place, they just can't be compared in sonic terms.

Get the Rega, have fun.

[bbs1982]

Cheers everyone, I'll certainly give it some thought now, want sure before

[r21442]

Late in but buy the Rega. I have an old one with the S-arm and don't play it much any more but it could almost match CD quality for dynamic range and could better it for imaging if well set up. I'd advise pushing the boat out for a good MC cartridge & input stage. Worst thing I ever did was trade my Audiolab 8000C - worth keeping for the phono input alone!

[michael orme]

Originally Posted by r21442

Late in but buy the Rega. I have an old one with the S-arm and don't play it much any more but it could almost match CD quality for dynamic range and could better it for imaging if well set up. I'd advise pushing the boat out for a good MC cartridge & input stage. Worst thing I ever did was trade my Audiolab 8000C - worth keeping for the phono input alone!

I have a Rega planer 3, it has an "S" shaped tone arm, I think it is from 1979. I use a MOVING COIL Audio Technica OC5 cartridge, with a head amp transformer, because my Sugden A25B,amp has only a MM input. I think you can still buy these devices, or a more modern replacement.
Michael Orme. Rhyl UK

[bbs1982]

Cheers guys!

Looking like im going to buy it!

Had an unexpected repair bill for car and xmas shopping not started so going to see whats left after that!

Appriciate the help guys!

BTW what cartridge is best for this? reasonable price though.

[alexs2]

For £100 or thereabouts,the Denon DL103 would be an excellent choice,and shouldnt require an MC head amp or transformer,and below that,you may find some of the Goldring MM cartridges to be a good match....the Grado prestiges are also worth looking at.

Above that range,the choice is huge...Dynavector,Lyra,Denon etc etc,but you'd have to take arm quality into account,and also invest in a good phono stage.