Rega Planar 3 50th anniversary

@knock1 explain yourself? 

Goodlistening, you wrote in response to my post.

"I would guess that over 50% of "audiophiles" have not personally swapped out a cartridge. It does take a steady hand and when you get up in age and your cartridge is north of $500, it just makes sense to let someone else who is skilled at it do it for you."

I have no idea whether your estimate of the percentage of audiophiles who do not mount their own cartridges is correct or even close to correct. My post had nothing to do with that topic.  I was saying, and am saying, that one reason why Rega may purposefully limit the adjustability of their tonearms (VTA, alignment, etc) may be that they do not trust their customers to do it correctly, which has the secondary benefit (for Rega) of pointing their customers at Rega cartridges, which are in turn designed to mount on their tonearms. A tertiary benefit is they avoid unfair criticism from customers who have made an error in cartridge mounting that causes bad sound; they "idiot-proof" their products, in other words. I don't know that this is the case, just guessing.

You also wrote, "The PSU is the motor that drives the platter to go round. It can be inside the plinth or a separate gizmo as you called it. Hence, if your motor dies, you unplug the PSU and replace it."  This is not quite correct. An outboard PSU for a belt-driven turntable does not contain the motor; it typically contains a specialized AC regenerator circuit that permits the user to modify the voltage or current which the PSU puts out to the actual motor.  The motor of course drives a pulley which drives the platter via a belt.  PSUs became popular only in the last 20 years or so, to counter claims that BD turntables do not maintain constant speed in the face of stylus drag and belt creep or slippage, which phenomena can be quite audible by altering pitch, especially on piano music.  These days any self-respecting (expensive) BD TT is bound to include an outboard PSU, and for those that don't, there are numerous aftermarket devices that perform the same function.  Using a PSU has the additional benefit of blocking EMI from the motor which can otherwise get back on the AC supply for the other components of the system, which can manifest itself as noise.

In your discussion of VTA, you refer to "needles".  What you see poking out of the business end of a cartridge is the cantilever, not the needle.  The stylus (needle) is a tiny thing mounted on the end of the cantilever.  VTA is important because the angle of the stylus to the groove affects what parts of the stylus are in contact, which in turn affects tonal balance.  Most people start with the top of the cartridge parallel to the surface of the LP.  Then they adjust VTA up or down (at the pivot) to achieve what they perceive as proper tonal balance.  This is why you have to buy shims in order to mount a non-Rega cartridge on a Rega tonearm, often.

@mahler123 ..or perhaps the pcb board (controller)? Cannot imagine how that could be faulty especially new.

"The PSU is the motor that drives the platter to go round. It can be inside the plinth or a separate gizmo as you called it."

PSU stands for Power Supply Unit, it controls power to the electric motor which in case of Rega is mounted in the plinth driving the platter via belt. The purpose of PSU is for the motor to have accurate and stable RPM. The PSU can be external like Rega's or internal like some Technics' for example. There are plenty of turntables not having PSUs at all.

@knock1     

Well thanks for the tutorial. The NEO is not just a power supply but also includes the control board for speed. While it does look and seem as though the motor is under the plinth - rather than part of it as the plinth is only 1" thick - there is no way of telling. In truth, no TT mfg provides schematics or information that determines what or how much of the motor is where. If you find that information, or know where to find it, that would be helpful. But it is merely for the sake of understanding how something works, which has always been a curiosity of mine. It is why I visit this site. 

Per Rega site: 

The Neo MK2 PSU is an advanced turntable power supply providing user controllable fine speed adjustment, an advanced anti-vibration motor circuit and the convenience of electronic speed change.

Also stated on the Rega site is that the NEO "reduces motor noise", and such engineering (separate pieces) is far better than the wall wart I got with the Pro-Ject 9 TT that was twice the price. Some may see the extension of the motor in another piece of equipment as poor engineering (such as @mahler123). Howerver, like him, I had a motor failure (or a mystifying reason for a TT failure) as he did and that does not go away. Not angry about it anymore, but I won't forget it either.