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EAUPMENT
REVIEW
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TheRegaP9Turntable
by ChrisBinns
I'm sure we have all said things that we
later regret, and of course sometimes
one's past actions come back to haunt
you. For example, about twice a year
I bump in to an old friend of mine who,
back in the days when I was a fiery
twenty something old, witnessedmy
mouthing off with a degree of passion
about the then new format of CD.
Having been asked for my opinion,
and fuelled no doubt by a considerable
amount of beer, I tore into the new
format with some enthusiasm,and
stated quite categoricallythat it
sounded lousy (conect)
afford that the then hierarchy (or was
it the press?)dictated that the starter
systemwas the Dual 505,and the only
other turntable worth considering
between it and the Linn was a Rega
Planar2, or 3. At a time when Naim
Audio would not consider selling you an
amplifier unlessyou had a Linn, Rega
were the only other manufacturerto be
similarly blessed;a starterNaim system
was often partneredwith a
Regaturntable.
would never take off
(incorrect) and was
unlikely to supersede
records (fill that one in
yourself). Novqwhenever
I bump in to Wlliam in
polite company after a
drink or two a mischievous
streak emergeswithin him
and he cannot resistembanassing
me by proclaiming loudly to the whole
room that here is the rRanthat thought
CD would be a flop - and thank God
I am not an investmentbanker.. .
I could quite easilywipe the smile
To date, Rega research
has been renowned for producing
innovativeand cost effectiveproducts
many of which have defined what can
be achieved for a certain price. The
from his face. I know that he recently
went to buy a tumtable from Argos for
far the most satisfyingbudget machine
that I have heard), and of course their
most successfulproduct ever,the RB
his midi system,only to be told that they
were out of stock - they are selling so
many that they are on back order for
severalmonths. I gather also that Project
are having difficulty in keeping up with
demand for the Debut turntable at 5120.
So it would seem that record players
are once again no longer the unique
province of condemned hi - fi nuts.
Which must be great news if you
are a turntable manufacturer.
In the days when the Linn LFl2 was
the turntable to aspire tq if you couldn't
undoubted successof the turntableshas
been followed by a range of electronics,
most notably the Planet CD player @y
300 tone arm. While capable of
impressive results that have seen it
partnered with some highly expensive
kit, it remainssomethingof an icon
in terms of price versusperformance.
krhaps this is why Rega have always
had what could be interpreted as a
mildly contemptuous attitude toward
the highend, and have tended to steer
clear of it. Not that the P9 would be
regarded by today'sstandards as
highend, but it does representthe
companies most ambitious and
expensiveturntable so far.
The family bloodline runs strong,
and thus the P9 looks similar to the less
expensiveP25and others in the line up.
It is compact, and by comparison to
some of the competition appearsalmost
'lighhveight',
due to its small size and
construction. Fersonal$ | love it I think it is refreshinglystraightforward and elegant.The P9
carries forward the company
philosophy of rigid
construction, consisting
of a plinth that is
fabricated from a
lightweight material
coupled to the main
assemblyat three points,
forming a skeletalconstruction of
relativelylow massensuring minimal
storageof energy There is no suspension
systemto speak of to isolate the arm
and platter - Rega argue that such
a systemcausesmore problems than it
solves,and that the benefits of a degree
of vibrational immunity are outweighed
by a more complex and uncontrolled
dissipation of mechanical energy that
would result in a smearing of music
reproduction. The rigidly mounted
motor drives the metal sub-plattervia
hvo small round section belts, thus
cancellingout any small inaccuracies
that would be apparent with a single
one. The platter itself is made from
a ceramic oxide material that is
compressedand then fired, the result
being so hard that it can only be shaped
and ground to size using diamond.
The RBl000 arm that is fitted to
the P9 is a derivativeof the fabled 300.
Visually it is distinguishedby the highly
polished arm tube (thus dispensingwith
the extra massof the paint finish),
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EOUIPMENT
REVIEW
while the originalplasticmoulding that
formed the cueing and bias ad.justment
has been replacedwith a superior
machined metal assemblyThe single
threadedcollar mounting anangement
has been substitutedby a three point
fixing arrangement,however this is not
compatible with the standard Linn type.
Lessobvious is the new wiring, which
now runs unbroken from the cartridge
pins to the phono plugs,and the
bearings,with a claimed
toleranceof under
I micron. This
incredible
level of
accuracy is only
attainableby a selection
process;the bearings of an RB300are
pretty damn close anylvay and by
picking the best out of the thousand
units that they produce every month,
Regaare able to offer incredible
precision for the assemblyof the 1000.
That would more or lessbe that as
far as the turntable goes.Sut perhaps
one of the most interestingpoints
about the P9 is the power supply
While the last few years have seen
considerable development in this area,
the importanceof providinga clean
stable and supply for the motor cannot
be overestimated.Regahowever,have
taken things one stagefurther. The P9
usesa variation of the Philips / Impex
motor, the type of which has appeared
on a large proportion of high quality
turntables over the last three decadesa fact that often surprisesme. Why?
Well no disrespectto Philips,but in the
flesh it hardly comes acrossas a piece
of precision engineering- rather the
opposite in fact, as it appearsrather
cheap and nasty However,there must
74
be somethingabout it, it has been used
for a long time with undeniablesuccess
by many manufacturers.A 24 pole
To say that the P9 falls out of the
box ready to use would not be too
much of an understatement.The unit
came supplied with Regasown Exact
synchronousdesign, it is availablewith
cartridge, a refined moving magnet
differentvoltagespecifications,
but all
design that unfortunately I was unable
require a bi-phase 50Hz AC supply
'rails'
to try as I didn't have a mm input stage
effectivelytwo
out of phase with
handy Were it not for having to change
one another to work correctly This can
the cartridge, the P9 would have been
be achievedeasilyenough from the
up and running in under five minutes.
household mains with the use of a
I was reminded of the owners card that
single capacitor,and indeed this was
used to come with the Planar three, that
the case for most turntable designsfor
many years.The development
ended a set of simple instructionsby
of dedicatedsupplies statingsomethingalong the lines of
'why
usually
are you reading this when you
involved
could be listeningto music?'...Well,
Regaalwayswere a little bit different
synthesis
in their approach.I ended up usingthe
of the 50Hz
waveform (and
Lyra Helikon.This did throw up a minor
problem,in so much as it highlighted
its out of phase
Rega'scontinuing view that VIA is
counterpart), which is
then amplified to provide
unimportant; despite the refinements
with the RBl000height adjustmentcan
clean power for the motor,
only be achieved through the use of
with considerablebenefits.
spacers.With the original R8300the
What the P9 power supply does
use of one large spacer at least
that is of particular interestis allow
maintained the mechanical integrity
adjustmentof the relativephase
betvveenthe two supplies,to
my knowledge for the first
time.The benefitof this
is that one can literally
lron our any
vibration
producedby
the motor
inherentin
its design,
and more
important$ allow individual
control over variation behveen
samples,which by all accounts is quite
considerable.The result is a lower level
of mechanical noise from the motor;
touch the motor casingwhile it is
running and you cannot detectany
vibration, which is not the casewith
other turntables I have used. What this
amountsto is killing the problem at its
source,and since there is virtually no
vibration there is no requirement for
any mechanical isolation from the rest
of the turntable.
of the arm mounting,the new arm
requiresthree washers,one
under each
mountinghole.The
result is a little inelegant to say the
least,although I can't put my hand on
my heart and say that I was aware of it
detracting from the performance.The
solution would be a machined plate to
match the arm base- expensive,but on
a turntable of this calibre, worthwhile.
Being a rigid design, one aspect
of the P9 that I was worried about
was acousticfeedback,and
REVIEW
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EAIJPMENT
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I figured that positioningwas goingto
be crucial.Placingthe unit on a Sound
Organisationtable with a glasstop, I was
at first disconcerted by the thumps that
issuedthrough the speakerswhenever
I touched the deck. Yearsof using
turntablessuch as the Linn whereby
you can thump the plinth as hard as
you like (assumingit is correctly set up)
with no audible resulthas made me
immune to this.But during use,even
at high volumes I was never aware of
the sound being compromised,quite
impact of music,helped considerably
by the superior tracking ability of the
cartridgethat the RB1000allows.
[arger scale orchestralworks
benefited from the highly stable
presentation,and the image presented
was both deep and wide with plenty
of detail regardingpositioningand
acoustic space.The only drawback was
we were listening to both turntablesthat
it occurred to me that the combination
of the Helikon and the P9 might be
that sometimesthe senseof urgency
that proved so exciting with rock music
prevented more gentle passagesfrom
cartridgesand report back.
The P9 is a startling$ good turntable.
'up
front'
It could well be that its slightly
developingat
performance will not appeal to everyone. but after all. that is a matter of taste.
What is unouestionableis that
the oppositein fact.
From the very first track I played,
I was struck by the sheer amount of
responsiblefor the slightly forward
balance.The Lyra,while being very
civilised,is a lively and exuberant
'snap'
in
performer with a degree of
the mid range,much like the Rega.
I will be interestedto try some different
it retrieves an
-\
energycoming off the
record. There was
startling and
never short of
excitement.Ispent
severalvery happy evenings
digging up old records that had
and very fast.
Rhythm and timing were particularly
impressive,while drums a1d percussion
as a whole came over particularly
well. What was also apparent was a
confidence, a sure footednessthat
made music accessibleand enjoyable,
while there was detail coming out of
the groovesthat I had not heard before.
From the taught bassthrough the
punchy mid rangeand into the
exceptionallyclean,clear cut treble,
music was reproduced with real
precisionand clarity and if that all
soundslike too much of a good thing,
it managedto do this without resorting
to the sort of clinical anaemiathat can
ruin ones involvementwith the music.
Record noise was particularly lorq and
this combined with the absenceof low
frequency rubbish greatlyenhanced the
of information
from the record,
which it presents
it in a thoroughly
enjoyable fashion
plus, it is refreshinglY
a vital urgency
and exuberance
to music that was
at times quite
alwayssoundeda bit dull and lifeless,
playing them on the P9 gavethem
a shot of adrenalin with the result that
the recordingssounded clean, fresh,
aWeSOmeamount
''
easyto use.Mewed on
their own
pace - I felt that the P9 was a little
insensitivewhen it came to slower,
thoughtful music,robbing it of some
flow and senseof feeling,as if it
were impatientto get to the end. It
occasionallysoundedas if the extreme
bottom end neededfilling out a bit to
slow thingsdown and allow more of
an atmosphereto develop.
This was highlighted to some extenl
by a comparisonwith the Clearlight
RecoveryBasicthat RG is reviewing
in this issue.The sound from these
two turntableswas very different, and
I have to admit that a Lyrita recording
of Herbert Howellsstring quartet
sounded more comfortable on the
Recoverywhile it lacked a bit of grace
when played on the P9. But then the
Clearlightcould not managethe sense
of urgency recreatedwhen playing
a TalkingHeadsalbum. It was while
its own, the P9 might not look
like tremendousvalue for money but much of its successcomes down to
the combination with is power supply
Put that in the picture and it would
seem as if the reputation Regahave
for producing high performance
productsat reasonablecost is intact,
>+
even enhanced.
T E C HINC A LS P E CF II C A T I O N S
Speeds:
33 and45 RPM
Dimensions(WxHxD):
Turntable:
480x120x370mm
Powersupply:
430x 70 x 270mm
Weights:
Turntable:
9.5K9
Powersupply:
1Kg
Finishes:
C h e r r yM a p l eB, l a c k
Price:
t2248
Manufacturer:
Ltd
RegaReasearch
Tel.(44)(0)1702
333071
1702 432427
Fax.(441[0)
75