Rega Planar 10 & Rega Aria & Naim Supernait 3

Planar 10 turntable and P10 PSU.

For the Planar 10, Rega has used the most advanced materials and engineering solutions built around a supremely lightweight plinth to ensure the greatest level of performance.

Like its sibling, the Planar 8, the Planar 10 was inspired by the ultimate Rega turntable, the Naiad.  Rega decided early on that instead of an evolution of the previous RP10, the new Planar 10 was to be developed and engineered to encapsulate the essence of the Naiad at a more affordable price. The Planar 10 narrows the gap between itself and the Naiad even further by using more exotic materials, carefully selected to reduce mass and improve rigidity throughout the design. New innovations in hub bearing, sub-platter, motor and drive belt design have led to even greater accuracy in turntable speed which directly improves sound performance.

The Planar 10 features the new RB3000 tonearm fitted with an improved, low mass, precision bias housing. They have pioneered a completely new low mass, central hub bearing assembly with improved mechanical integrity. For the first time on a Rega production turntable, a ceramic top brace delivers ultimate rigidity and accuracy whilst creating the perfect platform between tonearm and central bearing. Finally, this entirely new player is controlled by Rega's most advanced electronic power supply housed in a brand-new, full metal custom case designed to match the latest range of Rega electronics.

Rega Aria

The Aria is a quality phono stage/pre-amplifier, designed and engineered in the UK by prestigious and well-regarded hifi manufacturer 'Rega'. It's a fully adjustable unit that will offer superior performance when combined with both MM and MC cartridges. The Moving Magnet input makes use low-noise, bipolar input transistors that are configured as a compound pair. The Moving Coil aspect of the phonostage uses parallel connected, low noise FETs (which stands for Field Effect Transistors), these are also configured as a compound pair. 

Naim Supernait 3 Integrated Amplifier 

Its been 6 years since the Naim SUPERNAIT 2 was launched and in that time the development team at Naim have been hard at work on a number of improvements to bring to the new SUPERNAIT. The SUPERNAIT 3 raises the bar again by introducing a number of performance upgrades, the biggest being an integrated phono stage making it the perfect one-box solution for turntable fans. The new phono stage is based on Naim's classic design and features a 3 stage process, the gain stage, passive equalisation and then the final gain and active equalisation, this gives great headroom, RIAA equalisation & noise performance.

What are the upgrades?

• Full 24V DR module built-in
• Built-In Phono stage (RIAA equalisation)
• Large toroidal power supply giving better power and speed
• Class A headphone amplification 
• Microphonic -isolating PCB mounts
• Additional leaded through-hole components to help minimise transient thermal conditions and vibration effects 

The SUPERNAIT 3 includes a Class A preamp output stage which doubles as a headphone amplifier and ceramic heatsink technology that minimises capacitive coupling between the chassis and output transistors for optimum sound quality. Its inputs are each individually decoupled and hand-wired to minimise noise and interference while internal switching employs ultra-low-noise, constant current sources which are derived directly from the electronic design of the flagship NAC 552 preamplifier.

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 have honed their craft over many years of being a leading brand in every category they put a product to.

Who are Naim and what are their new 3rd generation integrated amplifiers?

Naim Audio has a special place in British audio, thanks to its founder and inspirational leader Julian Vereker, a hugely talented mechanical and electronic engineer with a passion for, amongst many things, music. Naim has always had a firm philosophy of music first, measurements second - each Naim product is extensively auditioned as part of the product development process to make sure that it delivers clear, emotional music-making ability. Naim products are designed to bring the closest facsimile of a live music event into your home listening environment, to give you maximum pleasure from your music collection.

Naim Audio, the British hi-fi specialist with 46 years of audio expertise, has launched the 3rd generation of its acclaimed NAIT and SUPERNAIT integrated amplifiers. The NAIT XS 3 and SUPERNAIT 3 feature significant performance upgrades and like their famous predecessors, both are handmade to Naim's high standards in Salisbury, UK.

In the six years since the last NAIT integrated amplifiers were released, Naim Audio's research and development team have worked on a whole host of improvements. Resulting in the best Integrated Amplifiers Naim has produced to date.