HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Daniel Quinn wrote:Deck first is flat earth ideology.

I am curious dsjr. I presume you would put moving coil on a rega rp6. What is different about this deck.

Additionally. I am certain rega rp6 with a Benz ace in it would beat any turntable with an at95e in it.

Sigh again...

First, WITH VINYL, you need to get the turntable behaving properly before the tonearm is considered and the cartridge cannot perform properly if the previous two are not up to it. Digital is slightly different ime, as for years, cheap digital can perform superbly if you select carefully.

The Fons was another Hamish Robertson design I believe, but this was before the days when people realised how important the turntable was as regards sound quality, let alone having master recordings with which to compare - this was one reason (jazzbones) why I despaired of Linn, as they of all people KNEW how atrocious the pre Cirkus LP12 was as they were easily able to compare the record as played on an LP12 system to the master recording used to cut the acetate originally!! The Fons CQ30 has a one piece platter which rings like a bell, even with the later stick-on rubber 'mat' pieces. The arm boards I remember being easily bent soft metal stampings, although the earliest may have been wooden - we're talking 1975 here and I can't remember now. The suspension used a double spring arrangement, one above and one below the sub-chassis, but all it did was to raise the bounce frequency into an ill-damped 'quiver' as I remember. Finally, the electronically controlled motor had little torque and slowed under load with some offshoot as I recall. Ariston took over the design later on and tarted it up a little, but it performed poorly under test I remember...

Yes, a late 70's Rega Planar 3 could out-perform a Fons quite comfortably if it was sited properly in all but one area, the Rega runs slightly too fast. We/I used to spend hours on setting up Thorens 160's, getting a pristine bounce and dressing the cables right, even using better arm-boards - then MDF - over the plastic one supplied. A stock Planar 2 would annihilate them in musical terms. I appreciate it's only words based on memories now, but it would have been easy to hear at the time.

As for current Rega's, I'm not the one to ask, as I love them all, but I have two friends, one is Alfafan here, who have been from RP1 to RP6, then back to RP1 and up to RP8, finally giving up and returning happily (in Alfafan's case) to an RP1, which appears better finished than ever now. I am working on a 'mule' P3 chassis, to which I'll be trying my old R200 arm, but that's a long term thing as cheap parts become available for it (£60 for a float-glass platter indeed!)

MK1LN4E:) wrote:I've seen a technics sl110 which looks nice, any thoughts in them?
Don't worry Dave you won't upset me I got the deck given to me off a neighbour of my parents. He got it given to him from an old friend who used to play music for their dance lessons before he passed away. I only bought a cheap cartridge to get it singing again and to be fair I've heard worse. But it does have its faults.

I'm so pissed off with certain people on this forum I wasn't posting until the Doc asked me to contribute here... I owned an SL110 and at the time (1974 to 1976), you could play tunes on the plinth as it was so 'live,' same with the mk1 SL120 - the SL 150 was a massive step forwards here as long as the lid is removed. Maybe the earlier two would be a lot better with a mat upgrade (SL110) and cork one added and lid removed (SL120) but unless hifi dave will let me loose on his SL110, I don't know. Back in the day, I knew nothing about mass loading, or decoupling, a turntable, so like 'everyone else, just plonked the deck down on any surface, which is a complete no-no with non-suspended decks. Hell, even the Doc's rather lovely sounding PL71 has Isonoe feet and a non standard mat I discovered

Feet made no difference, even to surface used, which was a disappointment considering what they cost, but I was sucked in by the AoS bullshit believe it or not. The mat came with that deck and I have had another four PL71 over time and the mat sounds the same as the ones on those. So there is nothing special about my PL71, it is just a special deck.

Hi guys,

DSJR is pretty accurate about my recent vinyl playing journey except that I haven't had an RP6 and to add that I had a vintage LP12/Valhalla/Grace G707 for a year or so that I refurbished and sold on. The Grace is a lovely arm for medium to highish compliance cartridges but the LP12 p*ssed me off as the suspension went out of tune quickly so i decided to return to an RP1 as old LP12s can be a money pit and I did not want to catch Linn "upgraditis" with the associated depleted bank balance . Oh and the LP12 is definitely coloured with a bloomy effect to the sound, most evident in the bass but it effects the whole audio band.

I would like to think that I am not an unthinking Rega fan ( I didn't rate the RP8 at all, with an overly lean bass and hum and rumble issues to my ear) but do reckon the RP1 is an exceptional deck for the money with a particularly good arm (it is not die cast like its other more expensive Rega brethren arms) and IMHO the cheap Rega decks do make good music and are great value. All they need is a lube service every now and then and a belt change. Oh and having experimented with various after market Rega mods and having been disappointed I would not bother and would keep a Rega deck stock.

I have learnt that in most of my areas of interest spending large sums on the latest marketing driven techno hype does not make it more fun. So IMHO my advice is for what it is worth is keep it simple (avoid spend sub-chassis decks) and use a good cartridge with a compliance which suits the mass of the tonearm to achieve a safe resonant frequency. I have had a Denon DL-110 HOMC and rate it highly and for £150 these days reckon it is excellent value for money.

Good luck with your turntable decisions

alfa........Dave is a goddamn Goldmine of info........And im quite bloody chuffed he contributes here........
We are blessed with technical expertise on this forum.........



Thats a pint you owe me Dave.

Anyone had experience with a rega p5, super elys, cartridge with a ttpsu?

Yes it plays fast to try and impress you, and for me fails completely to do so.

Jammy, agreed DSJR certainly is a mine of information and experience and we are lucky to have him contribute here.

MK1LN4e I have owned a Rega P3 2000 (1 down from the P5) and Rega Elys 2 cartridge (which IIRC is the successor to the Super Elys) and TBH I found the cartridge sounded dull, somewhat thick toned and un-dynamic with some QC, channel balance and inner groove tracking issues although to be fair my first Elys2 was much better so maybe just a bad example.

OK keep looking. I'd love to spend a few days demoing tt's it's an absolute mine field to which I can't afford to mess up. I like the look of a luxman pd264 but can only find info on other variants. They seem to make nice looking decks but wether they sound good is another matter.

The Rega MM cartridges are not good - thick-n-thumpy comes to mind, although they have improved a bit over the decades, although the Exact almost makes it. I still have an original grey-bodied Elys here - the diamond is superb but it's so godamned *bland* to my ears...

The P-25 and P5 which I think replaced it were slightly better then the Planar 3 and P3, and of course they looked posher too

The old Planar models always ran slightly fast - the Linn strobe is a 300hz type and magnified the small discrepancy, but the '2000' models seemed to be all but spot on. Different belt diameters will affect this too and an aftermarket silicon one I have here is slightly thinner than I remember the original being, so may run slightly slower than the stock article. I'll be able to check this in a few weeks hopefully.

Luxman made one or two good decks, and a raft of crap dressed up to look posh, so beware...