Rega Planar 3 Turntable

The Planar 3's RB330 tonearm was designed using state-of-the-art 3D CAD and CAM technology and incorporates over three decades worth of tonearm design experience to form a truly outstanding product. A new bearing housing and Rega's latest tonearm tube are designed in such a way that the tonearm can intelligently redistribute mass and guarantee that the arm exhibits far fewer points of potential parasitic resonance. It's an extremely stable arm design, with practically zero friction-free movements from the highly precise bearing assembly. The result is a truly immersive vinyl listening experience, complete with every level of warmth and micro-dynamic detail hidden deep within the grooves of your favourite vinyl records. 

The high-gloss acrylic laminated plinth is stiffer and better than before improved both aesthetically and ergonomically with the new power switch positioning. The plinth comes in three finishes; gloss black, gloss white or gloss red. The Planar 3 uses a platter/sub-platter construction with double braces, an improved 3mm phenolic bottom brace and a new metalised skin phenolic top brace. The Platter makes use of a newly developed float glass 'Optiwhite' polished rim 12mm design, which drastically improves the accuracy of the platter. 

Cartridge options 

There are a number of Cartridges that can be fitted to the Planar 3. We have selected a few of our favourites that can be shop fitted at no extra cost as well as the factory-fitted models from Rega

Factory-fitted Exact MM cartridge (optional)

The Rega Exact uses a pair of incredibly high-grade house-wound parallel coils. The selected coil set is painstakingly assembled in a custom jig to create the tightest possible pole gap in the moving magnet range. Achieving an incredible fine channel balance figure of ±0.1 mV the Exact delivers a fantastic stereo image and the highest output available from the Rega moving magnet range.

Shop fitted 

Audiotechnica AT95 SH - Audiotechnica is a firm shop favourite, offering a wide range of cartridge options. The Dual Moving Magnet Cartridge with Shibata Nude Stylus VM95  has two longer, narrower radii, allowing more surface contact resulting in extended frequency response and a highly detailed listening experience.

Denon DL-110 - This high-output MC cartridge has a symmetrical cantilever with an elliptical diamond stylus, tracking weight at 1.8g should be just about right. The straight parallel sides of the body allow accurate alignment for minimum tracking error. A flip-down stylus guard helps protect the vulnerable stylus and cantilever both during installation and during use/ cleaning. With deep driving bass, rich fluid midrange and vocals, and shimmering highs with spacious imagery - you will love it.

Rega Ania MC cartridge - Although the Rega Ania cartridge is the 1st of their Moving coil series, it is by no means entry-level or basic.  It features a super high-powered neodymium magnet and a coil hand-wound onto an iron cross. This tiny yet highly precise assembly allows for a greater level of freedom when tracking the grooves of your vinyl record, resulting in greater depth and more detail extracted from within these grooves. The stylus itself is elliptical in shape and diamond-tipped, seated at the end of an aluminium cantilever. Keep in mind that if you go for the cartridge, you will need to make sure you have a moving coil phono stage to work correctly such as the Rega Fono MC

Upgrades

The Planar 3's performance can be further improved by a number of small upgrades. Below we have highlighted a few

Rega Neo MKII - This helps to provide a more stable power supply to your Rega turntable, resulting in smoother playback and reducing wow & flutter. It also provides simple speed control between 33.3 & 45RPM

Rega Upgrade drive belt - Possibly the simplest upgrade possible, the reference EBLT drive belt helps to reduce peak Wow / Flutter measurements produced by the increased accuracy and cross-sectional roundness of the EBLT belt

Who is Rega?

Rega is a specialist hifi manufacturer based in Essex, UK and is renowned for developing and constructing some of the most highly regarded turntables (as well as cartridges and tonearms), electronics and loudspeakers available on the hifi market today. Rega was founded in 1973, and they have honed their craft over many years of being a leading brand in every category they put a product to.