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Jerry Garcia, best known as the founder and pivotal member of The Grateful Dead, died at the age of 53 in a Marin County, California drug rehabilitation center during the early-morning hours of August 9, 1995. The guitarist/singer had been plagued with health problems in recent years, but remained active as a touring musician up until a few months before his death.

"Deadheads," as the faithful followers of The Grateful Dead are known, considered Garcia the spiritual as well as artistic leader of the legendary rock band. Perhaps most importantly,…

Ever since he and partner Jay Farrar broke up the alternative-country band Uncle Tupelo in 1994, Jeff Tweedy has fashioned quite a career with his subsequent band, Wilco.

Rega Developments of the UK is famous, among other things, for its Planar 3 turntable and phenomenal RB300 tonearm. A few years ago the company branched out into loudspeakers, then electronics, but for several years into the digital revolution Rega held fast and made only turntables and tonearms.

I remember talking with Roy Gandy, Rega's co-founder and Managing Director, more than a dozen years ago. Along with Ivor Tiefenbrun of Linn, Gandy seemed to hope that CD might go away. It was Tiefenbrun who once told me…

My only other quibble has to do with the otherwise excellent owner's manual. On p.20, under "Trouble Shooting," the reader is treated like an idiot:

"Is there a disc in the player…

As a player—we'll take up the Rega Planet as a transport in a moment—the Rega Planet produces a rich, full-bodied, dynamic (but not overdynamic) sound. There is much more of a sense of rhythmic pace, more of a foundation under the music than there is, for instance, with the Marantz CD-63SE. In Linnspeak, the Rega Planet plays tunes. Or as WP would say, the Rega Planet boogies. Not that this is a player just for rock'n'rollers, mind you. My tastes run mainly to classical and jazz.

Where the Rega falls down, if only slightly, is in spatial resolution—this compared…

"Maybe the piano is a little loud compared with John Abercrombie's guitar...?" I was playing a rough mix of a recent live recording I had made of the Marc Copland Quartet to jazz writer Zan Stewart, who was visiting over the Christmas break. We listened to a couple more cuts. "You know," said Zan, "it sounds pretty good. I assume we're playing the CD-R on your $24,000 Mark Levinson transport/processor system?"

"Actually," I replied, "I'm playing the disc on Rega's $795 Planet CD player, and you've just given…

And the Rega was a master at reproducing a recording's spatial aspects. It took a while for me to get into Charlie Haden's and Pat Metheny's Beyond the Missouri Sky (Verve 314 537 130-2), which appears in this issue's "Records 2 Die 4" list courtesy of Shannon Dickson. I often find…

Description: Single-chassis CD player with remote control, S/PDIF digital output, and single-ended analog outputs. Maximum output (0dBFS signal): 2V RMS. Measured output impedance: 930 ohms (unbalanced).
Dimensions: 17.2" (437mm) W by 3.5" (89mm) H by 10.5" (267mm) D. Weight: 8 lbs (3.65kg).
Serial number of unit reviewed: 05334.
Price: $795. Approximate number of dealers: 130.
Manufacturer: Rega Research Ltd., 119 Park Street, Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex SS0 7PD, England, UK. US distributor: Lauerman Audio Imports, 519 Noelton Drive, Knoxville, TN…

Digital Playback: Mark Levinson No.31.5, Mark Levinson No.30.5, The Parts Connection Assemblage DAC-1 and DAC-2, Myryad MC 100, Sonic Frontiers UltraJitterbug.
Preamplifiers: Mark Levinson No.380S, Nagra PL-P.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.333, Pass Labs Aleph 3.
Loudspeakers: Paradigm Reference Active/20, B&W John Bowers Silver Signature, Thiel CS6.
Cables: AudioQuest AudioTruth Lapis X2 interconnect (single-ended), Madrigal CZ Gel-1 interconnect (balanced), Mod Squad Wonderlink I (S/PDIF), Illuminati Orchid (AES/EBU), Cardas Golden…

The Planet's maximum output level was 0.2dB above the CD standard at 2.05V. This might be audible in comparisons, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it. The analog output was absolute-polarity correct, and was sourced from 930 ohms (the measured figure was a little higher at 20Hz, a little lower at 20kHz). The Planet coped quite well with disc data dropouts. It negotiated track 30 on the Pierre Verany test disc but started to skip on track 31, which includes a 1mm dropout. The data clock was set a little high in frequency, an 11.025kHz tone playing with a +182ppm (0.…