Price-to-Performance Champ: Rega Planar 3 Turntable Features Complete Redesign, with RB330 Tonearm, Optional Exact Phono Cartridge, and Enhanced Components
Deemed "the best value on the market" by What Hi-Fi? and on the Stereophile Recommended Components list, the Rega Planar 3 (P3) turntable is charged with replacing one of the most iconic models, the five-time Product of the Year Award-winning RP3, in high-end history. Completely redesigned and offering tremendous enhancements in the fields of ergonomics, usability, and sonics, the stylish Planar 3 (P3) is a price-to-performance breakthrough that delivers insightful playback marked by excellent cohesion, sumptuous tonal balance, accurate pacing, addictive resolution, and — perhaps most importantly — fun. Carrying over just two components (motor and dustcover) from its revered predecessor, the wonderfully built P3 features a new tonearm, new plinth, new bracing, new main bearing, new platter, new subplatter, new feet, and a new motor cover. While "new" means little unless the connotation comes with improvements, in the case of P3, everything is enhanced to allow the music on your vinyl LPs to flourish with more detail, clarity, nuance, depth, dimensionality, and liveliness. No wonder it took Rega and chief designer Roy Gandy two years before the engineering team was fully satisfied with the results.
A primary key to P3's incredible sound resides with the brand-new RB330 tonearm. A bias assembly with a stuffer vertical housing bearing, integrated arm clip, and refined spring housing contribute to greater stability, near-friction-free movement, and advanced information retrieval. In addition, RB330 touts a low-capacitance phono cable with Neutrik plugs and a 100g mild steel balance weight for optimal precision. P3 also sports a stiffer, more attractive-looking glossy plinth as well as a thicker metal-skin phenolic top brace complimented by a 3mm phenolic bottom brace. Its bearing housing includes a redesigned brass main hub central bearing with ameliorated fit and construction to reduce internal stress. P3's subplatter provides boosts in accuracy and stiffness, while the platter's float-glass Optiwhite-polished 12mm rim lends sought-after elegance and furthered fidelity. Rega also re-tailored the feet for reduced vibration transfer and introduced integrated cooling into the motor cover tray. P3 seriously has — and does — it all for a price that will makes you (and your records) spin with delight. 100% Music Direct Guaranteed.
"This remains the best value turntable on the market."
—What Hi-Fi?, 2020 Best Turntable €500-€750 Award
"For me, the best record-playing system is the one that most vigorously directs my attention to the humans behind the music...Rega's new Planar 3 is exceptional at doing just that."
—Herb Reichert, Stereophile, Class C Recommended Component
"[The] Planar 3 sounds absolutely lovely, and the constant evolution that Roy Gandy and his team have brought to bear on this classic is truly admirable. Add a pre-mounted...cartridge and spin some records. Analog doesn't get any easier."
—TONEAudio, Exceptional Value Award
