Rega ramblings...

[Latteman]

Yes it’s a great read and informative to me as I don’t know the history nor had the opportunity to hear any of the above- never heard a rega deck- nor cartridge- had an rb250 & an Origin Live version, the Onyx.
Keep going

[_D_S_J_R_]

Not sure I should say very much about the electronics, but the CD players have all proved to be friendly in sonics - not coloured as such, but putting the music before HiFi fireworks. I feel reliability is good and after care is excellent should it be needed. The early players sounded 'best' with a 'Couple' interconnect added and we usually sold the player with one of these cable sets. better to me than an equivalent Arcam which by then had Marantz and Rotel pretty much beat.

The amps I always liked. Safe enough for numpty owners, they seem to work with a wide range of speakers, have good phono stages generally and now remote control too. Straight down the line I think, where Arcam used to be. They made a couple of nice tuners too years ago and the basic 'Fono' stages have been always predictable safe recommendations, again, straight down the middle products.

Not sure how successful their very expensive Reference range has been. Solidly built and interestingly styled, the brand is better known for the lower cost products and maybe the Reference amps and CD players weren't given every chance out there? Some months later, a lot of ex-dem units came up for sale and it's sad really when they seemed better than Naim costing twice the retail price! Anyone able to afford an Isis CD player even at half price, should be a little smug I think, although 'good' digital is so cheap these days I think...

An aside I clearly remember. Up until Easter 1988, the decks always had a waiting list and we had an allocation of 2's and 3's each month that we were happy to take. For whatever reason, this abruptly stopped after this Easter break and vinyl in effect all but died for us and many other dealers, I don't know why. The same thing nearly happened for stereo separates gear in the very early noughties. Up until late 2000, we had a full appointment list for dems and good sales of stereo gear. I made a disastrous career move which has cost me dear, but two years later, when I returned to the same dealer part-time, the dem list was almost empty during the week and those dems we had was all for crap home theatre systems recommended by What HiFi ('Ere, do you sell Bozee?) and no customers seemed interested in music playback any more. It killed me and the dealer I was at, but many years later, the tide has turned back a bit and it's all streaming two channel now.

P.S. Anyone interested in their speakers? Lots of good there but maybe not all are for everyone or every room...

[wiicrackpot]

Terrific read Dave, very informative and done with a bit of humour, cue Boze'ee.

Yes please to the speakers, as you know i am a speakers man.

[wiicrackpot]

Oh...as they say in Glasgow, ''Dae a Skid !!!'' remember to throw ya erms up the air at the same time, you're the man.

[_D_S_J_R_]

My personal vibe regarding the Rega speakers is that until recently they were voiced with their standard vinyl playback in mind. The first Ela was a neat looking slant-back floor-stander with Rega's version of a 'reflex transmission line,' in other words a bloody long port the width of the box, rather than a line which ideally would have been very much longer. The cabs were basically made as a rectangular box and then cut almost diagonally to get the shape - or summat like that. As I understand itm the first main driver was a joint venture with Royd and Rega then topped it off with the then ubiquitous Scan (Squeak) tweeter complete with undamped chrome plating to string tone (in my opinion of course). To hell with a neutral tone, these things could rock if the room was suitable and the only real negative for me was a lack of the bottom bass octave, which was a boon with a 80's vinyl source!

I went on a couple of factory trips in the late 80's/early 90's and bought a slightly dented walnut pair of the ELA 1.5's? Great sounding in the shop, the bass totally disappeared at home, leaving a screaming upper mid and top sound (Gale 301's did the same for me yet could sound fine in a larger room, Kans too in earlier times). They lasted two days... The Kyte was a wall mounted screamer but came with a neat L-bracket arrangement for wall mounting and they then did a floor stander based on Kyte parts, the EL8, which I thought sounded far better than it looked.

For some reason, the ELA got worse the longer it went on and by the time I returned to the brand in 1998, the last ones on dem (cherry colour all over) were spiteful and nasssssty I thought. They'd launched a new lower range though, the Kyte became the Ara, a neater looking two way with similar drivers and crossover in a slightly larger box with a bit better bass, the EL8 became the neat Alya, which again I tried at home and got no bass, although my Dad used them in his much larger room to very good effect, the bass control on his amp helping give a little more warmth of tone. The ELA was transformed into a much more refined floor stander, but the smallness of the sound remained I felt when it was used with anything other than a dull vinyl source with added warmth - just my opinion obviously.

The REAL fun box from them twenty years ago was the little floor-standing Jura. 8" paper cone ported bass and Tonagen? dome tweeter, the midrange was sublime by any standards, although the mk1 could boom and fizz a bit. The internal cab weasn't a totally open box, as there was a slatted partition near the bottom over the port. Part blocking the port with half a Wilko bath sponge sorted the bass perfectly and toeing or not the boxes helped with the tweeter, together with Cable talk 4.1 or Concert 2.1 speaker cable. These speakers allowed bi-amping (none of that buy-wiring nonsense) and the speakers grew hugely in stature whatever amp pairs we used - Rega Mira/Maia?, Arcam 8/8P or 9/9P and even Naim using a HiCap to 'drive two amps.
We sold loads of the Planet CD player plus Couple (oh crap, I forgot about the two-box Jupiter/Io which was better for a grand or so), Mira amp in original clamshell format and Jura's, which made for a lovely entertaining musical system for a CD source. I believe Paul Messenger did a favourable system review at the time, but I have no copy of it.

Roy did a larger speaker, the Naos. Rather tall,I loved this one, but it was a bit raw if heard near-field and the tweeter-whistle could be heard sometimes (that Scan tweeter takes off at 9kHz, even in fluid damped soft-frontal form as Spendor and Pro-Ac used). Not particularly pretty, I still loved it and nearly bought a pair for myself as the price wasn't stupid.

I lost touch with the brand for a few years in the late noughties but got to hear the later neater looking RS3's, RS5's and RS7's later on. Still slightly 'crisp' in balance, the sound jumped out of the boxes nicely to me and the RS3 has a lovely midrange purity on female voices. I did find the larger ones a bit too much (sorry) but maybe a well damped room like mine might actually prefer it, I don't know. The current RX speakers have much more solid and massier boxes, lightly doped main drivers and the highs integrate better than ever on all sources, especially now Rega's own MC cartridges bring albums to life in a way their MM pickups don't - to my ears anyway! I'm a big fan of the RX3 I have to say, but not if they're shoved up to the back wall as they were last Audio Show East - ugh!

Loads more to add from memories and if this continues, I could add snippets here and there. I do love this brand generally and think that for a retailer bought product range at sensible prices, they still have a lot to offer and do give superb service. Arcam have been taken over again (Harman now?), but apart from seeing one or two amps recently, I have no idea how they compare sadly. Rotel became a B&W distributed brand and seem to have disappeared from all but Sevenoaks dealers, although I could be wrong, so not much left to compare with except Cambridge - and NVA of course

One good? thing about their amps is that they all broadly 'sound' the same to me these days. The 'restraint' of the old Elicit/Elex and other clamshell models of twenty to thirty years ago gave way to a lively (too lively?) '2000' range and in refined form, this continues today, from the Brio R, right up the Osiris amp costing thousands. Owners of a Brio R can upgrade to a larger heavier and more powerful model and get the same sound but 'bigger.' - just like NVA amps. In comparison, the smaller NVA amps I've used have a more relaxed musicality about them which I appreciate very much, but the Rega amps do a great disappearing act if used on their own and I just can't dismiss them as an also ran as I personally think it does them a huge injustice. They do seem to need 3/4 hour to fully come on song, but many amps do seem to like this, so nothing different there really.

[CN211276]

I was out all day yesterday and there has been a lot to catch up on. I bought a Rega cartridge, cant remember which one, in the mid 80s and it was an improvement on the Ortofon VMS with Elite parabolic stylus I had been using. The Denon high output MC i am using now is a big step up from the Rega. I heard a top end Rega amp for the first time last month at the Mscaler demonstration and put the unsatisfactory sound down to the Spendor speakers.

I recall Rega dealers being thin on the ground in the early 80s and there was not one near me. I travelled to London, where i had a friend, to hear the Planar 3 against the fruit box. As a Planar 2 owner he was also interested. Had to return a month later because of the waiting list for the Planar 3. The Rega cost £135, the fruit box £340 without arm.

[setting son]

I think a lot of people have a soft spot for Rega as, like me, a 2 or 3 was their first 'proper' turntable. I had a Planar 3 and loved it at the time.

Keep up the ramblings, Dave.

[_D_S_J_R_]

The R100 cartridge was something special at the time (the last 'version' of it is the Sumiko Pearl if it's still available), but it's not 'neutral' at all. The thing that sets cartridges like this one aside, is that the 'quality' is seamless from top to bottom and because of this, the bassy balance doesn't matter so much. I have to say I was horrified when I first heard the Bias and Elys cartridges, but in a full Rega system of old they kinda make sense as long as the radio or anything 'digital' isn't part of the system. I have an Elys here (I was given a box of goodies when a local dealer closed down and it was in amongst the other stuff) and I play a minute or so every so often to 'remind' me...

[setting son]

I think Pro-ject are factory fitting the pearl to some of their turntables(?).

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Rega is an exercise in clever marketing. The man himself never designed anything, but he had the savvy to see what Ivor was up to and tag along on his coat tails without treading on them, so no conflict as happened eventually between Linn and Naim. Nothing they made was outstanding / astounding, but was all at least adequate to good and in retail days good value. He has become a rich man on the back of it.

I have no beef with Rega, overall they have been good for our hobby, and as seen helped a lot of people into the joys of music. sadly not helped that much by a lot of their retailers. I think given the present market he would now be a direct sell company, but now they have to wait for the retailers to die first.