Verdict
The Planar 3 RS take the already good stock Planar 3 and proceed to make it better while load you less than what the upgrades would be on their own . The upshot is a turntable that gives you a flavour of what the in high spirits spec Rega turntables can offer at a very militant price
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Everyone loves a deal and any deal where you get more product for less money is always live to invoke , particularly when we ’re all feeling the catch .
Rega has always been not bad to bid product that are potent value for money but they are n’t above doing a peck from time to time . Back in 2023 , to fete their 50thanniversary , they built a confine edition run of their Planar 3 lazy Susan called ; look for it … the Anniversary .
This came in a special wood close and had some extra options bundled on that meant that you get more than a thousand Irish punt of lazy Susan despite it cost £ 900 . As a circumscribed variation though , when 2023 fare to an end , the Anniversary stop to be .
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This is where the Planar 3 RS comes in . It ’s another particular version ( and the use of the intelligence ‘ particular ’ rather than ‘ modified ’ is deliberate because it will be made for as long as people need it ) that bundles some superfluous ironware together for a lower price than it would be to add them to a standard Planar 3 and then wraps it – quite literally – in a new polish to charge .
At the psychologically significant price of three figures rather than four ( just ! ) and in the face of Pro - Ject being on a rather decent test of their own , is this now the upright bomber £ 1k lazy Susan that money can grease one’s palms ?
Price
The Planar 3 RS is usable in the UK for £ 999 . Rega uses a connection of dealer across the UK which means you are improbable to be terribly far from one but some of them are authorised to ship the R online as well . In the US the Planar 3 RS will cost you $ 1,795 and has much the same retail arrangement as the UK . In Australia , it cost $ 2,199 AUD .
The Planar 3 RS is different to the standard Planar 3 in that , while the basic model has a degree of configuration ; you order it with or without a cartridge for exercise , the Planar 3 RS has one gear up specification level which helps Rega get it out of the door for the cost that they do . It does mean that if you postulate more flexibility , the standard Planar 3 might be the path to go .
Design
The basic designing of the Planar 3 RS is the same as the standard Planar 3 and this is no bad affair . This is a very pretty man of designing where the ease of the look itself feed it a knockout and sense of symmetry that many fussier rival ca n’t pit .
Absolutely nothing on the R does n’t postulate to be there and it gives the Rega an elegance that even some significantly more expensive lazy Susan can not get anywhere good . The combination of glass platter , slender plinth and a tonearm that does n’t have anything hanging off it make believe for a very handsome thing . It is an inviolable doddle to extract from the box and setup too .
The most strange affair about the radius is how different it feels to the standardPlanar 3and the Anniversary . The RS does n’t palpate like piece of furniture and neither does it feel like a standard Planar 3 . I do n’t know exactlywhythis is the vitrine but the RS feels close in overall execution to the wasted Rega model further up the reach .
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The final result might be £ 100 more than the Anniversary was but it feels like an whole more serious patch of hardware at the same time . There is nothing I have tested at the same kind of price that beget the same sort of feeling .
The same basic innovation as the Planar 3 means that the same limitation apply to how you rank it . Where something like the Pro - Ject Debut EVO2 has very pliant feet that give it a decent degree of isolation from the extraneous world , almost regardless of the Earth’s surface it is placed on , the Rega is much more rigid . This means that , depending on what you happen to place it on , the Planar 3 RS might be susceptible to outside preventive . Rega ’s solution has long been to utilise a paries shelf but this wo n’t be pragmatic for everyone .
The most classifiable factor of the RS is the conclusion . Rega has cake it in a newfangled take on its high pressure laminate which uses metallic element for the first fourth dimension . This makes it considerably blotto than the stock Planar 3 and starts drive it towards the more expensive Planar 6 . This footstall costs no less than three metre as much as a standard Planar 3 plinth and is n’t included in the breakdown of the extra outfit you get with it .
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One part of this extra computer hardware will demand a slight idea though . The RS comes with the external power supply and fastness control . It ’s a useful supernumerary but it does mean that the Rega require a small more space than some other models do at this price point and that blank will necessitate to include you being able-bodied to reach the PSU as it has controls on it .
Specification
The bespoke finish of the RS is n’t simply to make it await wise – it makes it stiff and lighter too . Why does this matter ? Put simply , stiffness and lightness iseverythingin Rega purpose terms . Rega plinths get steadfast and lighter the further up the compass you go ( cause Rega high end turntables feel comparatively unusual judged against more massive rivals ) . To this end , the RS is a meaningful step forward in what Rega feel is important above everything else in vinyl instant replay .
As standard , the RS comes with the Neo PSU which is an pick on the received Planar 3 ( and comes as standard on the Planar 6 andPlanar 8) . This provides a high quality 24 V supply for the motor , reducing unwanted quivering that can make their way of life to the play surface .
As the amphetamine control also includes electronic speed excerption for 33 and 45RPM , it also entail that a unsubdivided , higher quality pulley block can be used for the whang , rather than one that let for both fastness from the same revolution . This PSU is one of the individual great upgrades you could do on the stock Planar 3 so having it here is a crowing sight .
At the end of the tonearm you ’ll bump an model of Rega ’s new Nd5 move magnet magazine which is the 2nd of three models in the Nd range and a big step up over the older Rega motivate attractive feature models- which included the accurate magazine on the day of remembrance . It mix a nude elliptical style and a very stiff atomic number 60 magnet generator , while the eubstance borrows heavily from the caller ’s motivate spiral designs . As noted earlier , the RS is only uncommitted with the Nd5 pre fitted which means that if you happen to have a cartridge you really care , you ’ll still be paying for the Nd5 .
One feature of speech of the Nd5 is shared with the other Rega cartridges and may be utile in the future . Where most pickup have two screw backing and need to be ordinate , if you use a Rega cartridge on a Rega tonearm , it mount via three bolts , mean it adjust utterly every fourth dimension .
This mean that changing the Nd5 go-cart on the Planar 3 RS to an Nd7 or one of the Ania moving gyre models would be wholly straightforward . This is joined by other upgrades too like a chic weapon equalizer and the international phono stages that Rega raise that think that the Planar 3 RS has more to give if you want .
Performance
After a few 60 minutes of hear to the Planar 3 R in the context of other electronics I knew well , the impression was that this is every in a Rega . What do I intend by this ? The Planar 3 RS is an exceptionally active sound record player . Listening to the cheerfully ballistic No One cognise by Queens of the Stone Age , the Rega captures the drive intensity of the raceway as a whole . It hits fast and it delivers a stage of punch that is rather surprising from something that looks and feel as delicate as the Rega does .
There is also a quality to the stereo image that is very distinctive . Compared to a few turntable you may purchase , the soundstage of the Planar 3 RS is n’t quite as grand ; it ’s in reality a little narrower than thePro - Ject Debut EVO2for case . What this does very efficaciously though is control that everything within this blank space has an order and logic in sexual congress to everything else .
Even very complex material like Channel the spirit by The Comet is get along stays understandable in a way that sometimes even the digital file cabinet ca n’t manage .
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This order and lack of compression means that at time , the Planar 3 RS sound more like a Planar 6 or even a Planar 8 than it does the ‘ normal ’ Planar 3 . There is a reduction in anything you might remotely comprehend as mechanically skillful impingement on the record .
The Planar 3 RS impart you a coup d’oeil of what the more expensive Planar models can do and it does it more efficaciously than I thought was potential for something so closely related to the ‘ normal ’ Planar 3 . It has been a little while since I tested a Planar 6 in this blank space but I suspect that the RS go quite close to it .
Some of this closeness will be down to the Nd5 magazine . The new Rega move attractor designs are a monumental step fore over the models they substitute and the combination of Nd5 and Planar 3 is a fundamentally satisfying one . The tonal richness and realism on offer here is really hi - fi ; something that is a true reproductive memory of the master rather than a pleasant take on it . There has been a ancestry of thought doing the unit of ammunition in audio circles for decades that the Planar 3 represents the point where vinyl radical really starts to become a serious hearing medium . The Planar 3 is unambiguously good enough for this to be the sheath .
It does this without ever losing the delight and engagement that Regas have long been just at . For my sin , I am a immense sports fan of late 80 / early nineties electronica act The Shamen . Listening to the 45RPM rendering of En Tact on the RS is apparent and simple good play . The Rega is able to do truly impressive things with high quality press but assure that less than perfect material in your program library sounds nice too . There is a tractability to how the RS sounds that imply you ’ll keep wanting to utilize it .
Should you buy it?
The RS takes everything that the Planar 3 does so well and hone it to be that little turn better . The fact it costs less than taking a standard Planar 3 and add up the bits as choice only sweetens the deal . This feel like the ultimate evolution of the Planar 3 and and a redoubtable bit of kit .
The Rega has to contend with seriously capable rivals like the Pro - Ject Debut Evo2 which costs less and has some brilliant upgrades of its own . The Planar 3 RS is a brilliant lazy Susan but it does n’t have the market to itself .
Final Thoughts
The feeling of getting something for nothing has a vast positivist spin on the Rega . The fact you’re able to not upgrade a Planar 3 to the same spec without spend £ 300 or so more ( and even when you do , it does n’t have the same plinth as the RS does ) entail that you find you ’re getting a bargain even before you start listening .
Purchases like this are as much about how they make you sense as anything else and the Rega ’s pricing approach realise you find pretty good .
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How we test
We test every lazy Susan we review soundly over an extended period of time . We apply diligence stock tests to compare features decently . We ’ll always severalise you what we find . We never , ever , accept money to review a product .
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FAQs
Nope . All you get is black , or as Rega promise it “ dark metallic brushed aluminium ” .
Full Specs
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