REGA PLANAR 8 TURNTABLE

If you think that designing, engineering and building a turntable might be a fairly straightforward task, I totally recommend you invest in a unique and exceedingly interesting book titled ‘A Vibration Measuring Machine’. Although it’s a single book, self-published by Rega, it’s actually three books in one. The first part is a history of the company itself, which is extremely interesting. The third part is about the people who work there, which is perhaps less so. The second part is a complete explanation of the ‘black art’ of turntable construction, with separate sections for the plinth, the motor, the drive system, the platter, the bearing, the tonearm, and the cartridge. This second part of the book is absolutely outstanding: it really should be required reading for anyone who intends to acquire what Rega founder and designer Roy Gandy whimsically refers to as a ‘vibration measuring machine’ because, as he explains in the book, essentially what is required of a turntable/tonearm/cartridge combo is that it measures the vibrations in the groove of a long-playing record with the greatest accuracy possible, because those vibrations are typically 0.005mm and may be as small as just one single micron (0.001mm): “This means that any unwanted movement between the stylus and the disc of 0.001mm can create a massive measurement inaccuracy of 100%.”

THE EQUIPMENT

The first time you see a Rega Planar 8 in the flesh (so to speak) you will likely be shocked by its skeletal appearance, even if you’ve been pre-warned by seeing a photograph. It’s really completely unlike any turntable you’ve likely seen before, because essentially there is no plinth. “And why should there be?” I can hear Roy asking, because in essence, all any plinth is required to do is provide a platform to support the drive motor, the main platter bearing and the tonearm.

The first time you lift a Rega Planar 8 (without its triple-laminate glass platter, about which more later) you’ll likely be shocked by how little it weighs. Unlike most other turntable designers, who make their plinths as heavy as ”. He continues, in order to make his point perfectly clear: “.”