Rega Planar 10 turntable

REGA PLANAR 10 TURNTABLE
- Manual, belt drive turntabele, so well made it offers exemplary performance that should stand the test of time

Rega turntables have always pursued the goal of extracting as much information from the record groove as possible, while concomitantly minimizing the impact of vibration and resonances from the external environment. From the black, laminated particle-board plinth of my Rega Planar 3 to its most recent top-of-the-line models, Rega has utilized designs with the lightest, stiffest plinths possible. With the advent of the top-of-the-line RP10 in 2013, and now the Planar 10, Rega has completely done away with the classic rectangular plinth, switching to a minimalist, “skeletonized” base that combines the lowest possible mass with as much stiffness as practicable. The RP10 utilized a skeletal plinth composed of two layers of HPL (high-pressure laminate) with a layer of polyolefin foam in between. The Planar 10 takes this design further, using Tancast 8 instead of polyolefin foam, resulting in a plinth that is 30% lighter than the RP10’s, but with increased rigidity.

The platter is a key reason why the Planar 10 can extract so much information from the record grooves. It is made of a super-hard ceramic material, aluminum oxide, first used on the P9. In the case of the Planar 10, the edge of the platter is thicker than the center portion to provide additional rotational mass and, thus, a flywheel effect that increases speed stability. The traditional Rega 100% wool mat is still used, but the Planar 10 has an improved thin, white wool one. The platter is milled from ceramic oxide blanks with diamond tooling to provide maximal dimensional precision and flatness. The platter sits on a new sub-platter that features double belts and rests on small, machined nibs at the sub-platter’s circumference to provide high contact pressure and therefore maximize the transfer of energy from the motor and belt.

The Planar 10 also uses two skeletonized braces (first found in the Rega P9) that tie the main bearing and tonearm subassemblies into a single, integrated, stressed member that provides additional stiffness with a very minimal increase in overall mass. The top brace is ceramic; the bottom brace is phenolic; and these different materials have different resonant frequencies. Together, they further improve the ability of the system to extract information from the record groove.

New RB3000 Tonearm Rega has been long-renowned for its tonearms; indeed, for years many other turntable manufacturers have used Rega tonearms. The company has continually refined its tonearm-manufacturing process, developing (among other things) a sophisticated means to lap both ends of the tonearm bearing surfaces simultaneously, which results in bearing tolerances of one micron. Crazy! The new, top-line RB3000 is the first Rega ’arm to benefit from these improvements. The tonearm was specifically designed to have the lowest possible number of joints, while concomitantly maximizing stiffness in key locations. As with the previous-gen RB2000, the ’arm is not painted, but hand-polished to a beautiful finish to keep mass as low as possible.

The Planar 10 uses Rega’s latest-generation, 24V, synchronous, low-vibration motor technology. This new motor is mounted using a maximal level of coupling, while simultaneously producing less vibration than previous-generation models. The new motor-mounting approach is the same used on Rega’s statement turntable, the Naiad. The rationale for this is to remove all stress from the motor body, while holding the drive pulley perfectly still, which results in greater speed stability and accuracy. Each motor is hand tuned to match its own PL10 PSU power supply, before being fitted to the turntable.

EBLT Reference Drive Belt The quality of the drive belt has a significant impact on sound quality. Rega has put forty years of R&D into developing a bespoke rubber compound for its belts. The manufacturing of this new rubber belt involves a special curing protocol, which results in a molded belt that has a modulus of elasticity that is extremely consistent throughout its length. The new belts are molded using a Rega-designed, state-of-the-art, super-accurate mold tool, to produce belts that are perfectly round and dimensionally accurate. These new belts provide perfect speed stability and are key contributors to the Planar 10’s exemplary overall sound quality.

The PL10 external power supply provides exceptional speed stability, and convenient electronic speed changes at the press of a button. It also has advanced anti-vibration control and user-adjustable electronic fine-speed adjustment to ensure maximal accuracy for the life of the motor. Housed in Rega’s latest custom-designed case, the PL10 PSU runs the low-noise motor as quietly and as accurately as possible. The speed and control of the motor is achieved by using a new digital-signal-processing generator controlled by a high-stability crystal oscillator. This device references the highly accurate square wave from the crystal oscillator to turn the platter at the selected speed. The DSP core will also generate a near-perfect sinusoidal waveform to power the motor. Factory-set vibration removal and fine-speed adjustments are then made to the power supply to tune each motor for optimal performance.

I love and admore this turntable. It is so well made that it should provide reliable performance for decades. With its use of cutting-edge materials, straightforward design principles, and unrelenting focus on minimizing the impact of vibration to extract maximal information out of record grooves, the Rega Planar 10 is easily one of the best turntables around, regardless of price. Even withth our humble AI3600SLC, it extracts incredible amounts of detail, while also providing spacious, stable, and well-defined imaging. Frequency response is extended with exceptional tonal neutrality. The presentation is characterized by lifelike low-end power, and overall definition, speed, transparency, and articulation. The bottom line? Yes, you can spend more money on a turntable, but, why?/ You won;t have a more connective experience than the one that the Planar 10 offers from LPs. It’s an outstandingly well thought out, superbly engineered, executed, and crafted product, it will last a lifetime making beautiful music that anything else would be profligacy - you don't want to be that!