Rega Planar 3 50th anniversary

OP

  your question is would a Rega P3 improve over a Technics Direct Drive.

I once owned a Rega P5.  They sold with an extra box that was supposed to guarantee speed stability.  I should have asked myself why they needed a separate box to cure a problem that they couldn’t fix with the base table.  With or without the box, it had terrible speed instability issues, particularly at end of side.  I had a record that had the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata at the end of side one.  The famous piano triplets were so distorted that they sounded like an ondes martinot.  The same lp sounds superb with my Technics Direct Drive.

  I notice that reviews, particularly UK reviews, of Rega tables seem to spend a lot of time reproducing Rega measurements claiming they have solved speed instability issues.  One wonders why they doth protest so much…I simply will never invest again in a Rega table.  Fool me once…

@goodlistening64 

  I didn’t want to go through the whole song and dance about the experience with the Rega P5, but since you asked..

  I bought the P5 and the PSU from a reputable dealer here in Chicago.  The PSU died when it was under warranty.  Honestly the player didn’t sound any different with or without it.  I took the PSU back to the dealer.  It took almost a year to get a replacement from Rega.  This then died after a few weeks.  Back to the dealer I went, and was told that my complaint was not unique and that other customers were having trouble.  This time Rega refused to replace the PSU since the original warranty had expired.  I won’t recapitulate the back and forth between the dealer and myself.  At the time I was upset with the dealer, who I thought should compensate me in some fashion, but it really was Rega’s issue.  Since the PSU appeared to do nothing except look like an ugly paperweight I dropped it.

  Again, I query:  Why should a company have to make an extra gizmo, and charge substantial money for it, to correct an issue that proper engineering would have not allowed in the first place?  In what other industry are consumers so gullible as to shell out for something the company is admitting is faulty at the date of purchase?

I can only conclude that Rega and other companies are trying to squeeze every nickel they can from listeners well known to be obsessive about quality.

@goodlistening64 

do you live around Ann Arbor?  I think I saw an Overture there.

So correct my ignorance here,but if the motor died, shouldn’t the whole thing not work?  The Rega spun discs, but as it turned out I brought the table to another reputable repair shop,on my own dime, and they confirmed that it was spinning at about 35.5 rpm.  They tried various tweaks and couldn’t fix it.  Neither the repair shop , the dealer, or Rega suggested that the motor was otherwise impaired.

  Again, the fact that Rega sold an add on to correct an issue that was inherent in their engineering, would suggest that Rega’s well known reputation for speed instability is well deserved