Turntable Reviews

Art, I totally remember those white tires, and extra "grabby" they were. Not to mention they really tricked out my hot pink 1967 Camaro racer. I had totally forgotten about them. Thanks for the memory. Oh yeah, enjoyed the article,  too!

I very much like my white Rega RP-1. It's a lot less squirrelly than my Ariston Audio RD11s, which I relegated to my second stereo system in favor of the RP-1 it was meant to replace. (Unlike the Ariston, which will skip if you look at it funny (it needs new springs), you can jackhammer the floor next to the RP-1 to no effect.) And, except for the addition of a cue-arm, the simplicity of the RP-1 harkens back to the beloved AR of my college years -- a turntable easily managed by college kids in any level of altered consciousness.

I performed only one tweak to the RP-1, which resulted in an excellent improvement of its sound. I upgraded the stylus on the stock OM 5e that came mounted on the turntable with the Ortofon 10 stylus. Immediately, the sound became more detailed, the stereo separation greatly increased and the stage expanded. It was like a whole new component.

The improvement was so drastic that I would gladly have spent more for the OM 20 or even 30 stylus, but I understand that there would be little additional impact unless mounted on one of the Super OM cartridges, which the OM 5e is not. But with the Ortofon 10 stylus -- which is easy to swap out -- the OM 5e isn't a bad little cartridge.

I have a rega Plana 2 of over 20 year vintage with damaged tone arm I am thinking of replacing the turntable : will this rp1 give comparable or even better performance?

For those people who might buy some of the leftover RP1's there is a bit of problem. The wiring in the tone arm is as low quality as you can get. The clips are so bad they are embarrassing. An Audio Technica 150mlx will emprove more than any cartridge Rega makes. Simply the clips (2) broke, so I had to rebuild the very good tonearm. Higher quality RCA cable to cardas, new wire run, high quality clips added. Dang if I don't have one very good turntable. There are other options like adding a 24volt motor, but mine is working well with the white belt.

NOTE: I do not recommend the new Planar 1 or 2 because the bias control is non-existent. You are stuck with the cartridge they give you. Therefore, go to the Planar 3 to better the RP1.