Rega Planar 3 : Heavily upgraded yet produces a sound that I don't like

@auditionaudio ,

Err.. yes, but the Townshend Rock was a unique design that's hardly likely to bettered in its areas of strength.

Particularly in the bass, which is not something Regas are known for.

This highlights the real dangers of tweaking. Despite what others might say (esp paid reviewers), after much cost in time and money you can easily end up with a wholly undesirable result. One that will never recoup all the extra money invested. 


I once tried to upgrade a Rega 3. In the end I eventually realised it was a little presumptuous to think I might know the Rega 3 better than Rega did. Even the so-called isolation tweaks didn't achieve the expected results.

Rega decks seem to be balance of very carefully matched resonances. Not so easy for the layman to improve at home.
My Rega 3 seemed impervious to any of my attempts to improve it.

In the end I bought an LP12, but that's another story.

In fact if you say that all turntables are a basically a combination of resonance control and speed accuracy, then it's not altogether obvious how any of these tweaks might have worked.

Oh well, no worries. It's all a learning process and many of us have been there before you.

A 1990 Rega 3 is not the last word in scale, bandwidth, or temporal accuracy, so good luck with getting a far better deck in the future.

@bpoletti ,

'Maybe you're expecting more out of your table than it's capable of delivering. I had a Rega Planar 3. I returned it the next day. Bought my first VPI table instead.  

There are plenty of good-sounding tables out there without having to settle for a Rega.'


Absolutely. However, as you know, sometimes it's best to find out for yourself.

I keep reminding myself to sometimes not butt in and let my kids make some mistakes. 

Can be a good way to learn. Sometimes, it's the only way to learn.

I often berate reviewers for leading me astray when I was new to audio, but no one held a gun to my head. 

Would I have listened to an alternative opinion back then?

Not too sure that I would have. Embarrassing to think that many of us used to smugly look down on the likes of Quad, SME, Technics etc as we were held in rapture by the likes of Naim, Linn and Rega.

Thankfully, that bubble was unable to withstand the pressure of reality and eventually burst of its own accord.

Freedom at last.