Well, I just got off the phone with Steve Daniels of The Sound Organisation, US importer for Rega, and while I don’t have a ton of information on Rega’s new RP-1 turntable, I do have some good news:
The RP-1 is scheduled to be available by the end of September and
will not be considerably more expensive than
the P1. The company hasn’t set a final US retail price, but they’re targeting somewhere around $445, or just $50 (or so) more expensive than the old version. Which I think is great. My eyes tell me the cosmetic upgrades alone are worth that much.
Rega says the RP-1
will be “considerably better than the P1.” But, of course they would say that. Can the RP-1 live up to the claim? We’ll see! A review sample will be on the way just as soon as it’s available. While the RP-1 uses the P1’s same Ortofon OM5e cartridge, it replaces the MDF platter with a new Phenolic resin platter and adds the new RB101 tonearm. And though
the website indicates that this is just the first of an entire new generation of Rega turntables, the company hasn’t yet announced any other upgraded models. Any such talk would be premature.
For now, we have lots of enticing photos:
