The Ultimate in Rega Performance
The Planar 10, drawing inspiration from Rega’s ultimate turntable, the Naiad, is built around an ultra-light skeletal plinth. This plinth is constructed from Tancast 8 core and is covered with a high-pressure laminate (HPL) skin. The Planar 10 stands out as the first production turntable to utilize ceramic bracing, which provides an exceptionally rigid surface. This rigidity is crucial for mounting the precision reference RB3000 tonearm and the custom central bearing assembly, ensuring optimal performance.
As of April 2023, a new matt white finish is available for the Planar 10. In this variant, the white Planar 10 comes standard with a clear dustcover and a black mat, adding to its sleek and modern aesthetic.
- RB3000 tonearm
- Apheta 3 or Aphelion 2 factory fitted (optional)
- Ceramic Oxide diamond cut platter
- DB technology with ceramic top brace
- Tancast 8 foamcore plinth
- P10 custom matched PSU
- Reference EBLT drive belt fitted as standard
- Available in two matt finishes, Polaris grey and white (new for 2023)
- Lifetime warranty against manufacture defects
The Planar 10 features a bespoke ceramic oxide platter, which undergoes a diamond cutting process during manufacture to achieve ultimate accuracy and speed stability. This precision-crafted platter is a key component in the turntable’s design, contributing to its exceptional performance.
Powering the Planar 10 is the Rega 24 V synchronous motor, which is controlled by Rega’s most advanced outboard power supply, the P10-PSU. This power supply is a critical element in the turntable’s design, delivering the ultimate in motor vibration reduction, electronic fine speed adjustment, and the convenience of electronic speed change.
The Planar 10 is meticulously designed to deliver the pinnacle of Rega’s performance capabilities. Its construction and components are optimised to extract more information from the vinyl groove than ever before, ensuring a listening experience that reveals the full depth and detail of the music.
Ultra Lightweight Plinth
The Planar 10 is the third turntable from Rega to incorporate the company’s latest technology, utilizing the ultra-lightweight Tancast 8 polyurethane foam core, a material initially developed for the aerospace industry. This innovative core material is sandwiched between two layers of HPL (high-pressure laminate), which is known for being exceptionally thin yet extremely rigid.
This construction approach results in the new Planar 10 skeletal plinth being 30% lighter than the original RP10, while simultaneously providing increased rigidity compared to the previous model. This design not only enhances the turntable’s performance but also maintains the structural integrity necessary for high-fidelity audio reproduction.
Double Brace Technology
Rega emphasizes the principle, “Mass absorbs energy – lost energy equals lost music.” In line with this, the design of their turntables, like the Planar 10, includes a super lightweight plinth combined with a ceramic top brace and a phenolic resin bottom brace. These braces are strategically mounted between the tonearm mounting and the main hub bearing, creating a structurally sound “stressed beam” assembly.
This rigid plinth design is pivotal in preventing energy absorption and unwanted resonances, which could otherwise add unnatural distortions to the music. Additionally, a heavier mass in other turntable designs might transfer more unwanted energy, such as motor or bearing noise, directly into the rotating record. It is crucial that the tonearm and cartridge are able to read accurately and directly from the platter.
Rega’s unique double brace solution, employing braces instead of a complete skin, achieves this goal. It increases thickness in key areas for added rigidity, while also reducing the overall weight of the plinth. This approach directly addresses the issue of mass absorption and unwanted energy transmission, ensuring a purer and more accurate sound reproduction.
RB3000 Tonearm
Rega is renowned for the quality of its tonearm bearing assemblies. In particular the accurate manufacturing of our bearing housing and bearing spindles. Technical characteristics such as “roundness” and “parallelity” are critical.
Over the past three years, Rega has found a new manufacturing process which improves on all these characteristics resulting in a micron perfect bearing fit. The RB3000 is the first Rega arm to benefit from these improvements. The entire tonearm structure is designed to have the minimum of mechanical joints while using the stiffest materials in all critical areas.
The tolerance of the RB3000 tonearm is so tight that no adhesive is used at any point throughout the construction. Our latest low mass, precision engineered, vertical bearing assembly has been manufactured to further complement the inherent design philosophy of the Planar 10 turntable.
The RB3000 tonearm uses our advanced, preloaded zero tolerance bearing assembly adjusted to less than 1000th of a mm. This gives friction-free movement and zero levels of unwanted play. Simply put, friction-free bearings with no play enable ridges in the record groove of less than a micron to be read.
The RB3000 also uses our latest award-winning, aluminium, Rega arm tube (each one of which is meticulously hand polished, keeping mass to an absolute minimum) which was redesigned to redistribute mass and further reduce stresses and resonances. This advanced design tube increases the stiffness and rigidity of the overall assembly whilst reducing stress on the bearings even further.
Hub Bearing Assembly
For the past three years, Rega has dedicated extensive research and development efforts, in collaboration with chemists, to create a bespoke new rubber compound specifically for drive belts. This effort involved using a specialised curing system that enhances the new drive belt with superior consistency of modulus. The modulus is a constant representing the degree to which a substance possesses a particular property, such as elasticity, which is crucial for the performance of drive belts in turntables.
The production of these belts is carried out on Rega-designed, state-of-the-art tools. These tools are calibrated for super-accuracy, which is crucial for producing belts that are ‘perfectly round’ and ‘dimensionally accurate’. Such precision is critical for maintaining perfect speed stability in their turntables, reflecting Rega’s focus on detail and quality in every component they develop.
Hub Bearing Assembly
This latest design of the Planar 10 showcases Rega’s meticulous attention to detail and the utilization of modern CNC engineering techniques. These advances enable new compromises in turntable design, bringing the main bearing design of the Planar 10 closer than ever to the ideal that was once thought unachievable.
The Planar 10 features a new low mass central bearing assembly. This assembly includes a single piece of machined aluminium for the sub-platter and a hardened tool steel spindle, both operating within a custom brass housing. This brass housing is not only designed for improved mechanical integrity but also optimally positioned within the chassis. The strategic placement and design of the assembly are intended to prevent any unwanted potential energy from being transferred to or stored in the plinth.
Ceramic Platter
The P10 turntable employs a custom-made ceramic, flywheel effect platter, showcasing Rega’s commitment to innovative design and high-quality materials. This platter is manufactured from ceramic oxide powder, which undergoes a process of compression, firing, and diamond cutting. This meticulous production process ensures perfect accuracy and flatness across the surface of the platter. In the latest iteration of the P10, the platter features a modified construction, which includes an improvement in the way it couples with the sub-platter.
24 V Low Noise Motor Assembly
The Planar 10 features Rega’s latest generation of 24 V synchronous, low vibration motor technology. This motor is mounted using a technique that ensures the highest level of coupling while maintaining greater vibration isolation than any of Rega’s previous models. This motor mounting method, which involves securing the motor from the bottom, is a design concept directly adopted from Rega’s ultimate turntable, the Naiad. This unique approach effectively removes all stress from the motor body while keeping the drive pulley perfectly still, resulting in improved speed stability and accuracy for the turntable.
The benefits of this mounting technique are twofold: it not only reduces vibration but also provides a more rigid mount. This combination leads to superior drive from the new EBLT drive belts. Further enhancing the Planar 10’s performance, each motor is hand-tuned to its own custom-matched PL10 PSU power supply before being installed in the turntable. This precise tuning process is essential for optimizing the anti-vibration circuit, ensuring the turntable operates with minimal interference and delivers optimal high-end audio performance.
EBLT Drive Belts
Over the past three years, Rega has dedicated substantial research and development, in collaboration with chemists, to create a bespoke new rubber compound specifically for drive belts. This collaboration and development involved the use of a specialised curing system. The result is a drive belt that offers superior consistency of modulus, a measure that represents the degree to which a substance maintains a particular property, notably elasticity, which is crucial for the performance of drive belts in turntables.
These new belts are produced using state-of-the-art, highly accurate tools designed by Rega. The inspiration for these tools came from working with a manufacturer known for producing high-tech Formula 1 engine parts. This collaboration has led to the production of ‘perfectly round’ and ‘dimensionally accurate’ belts. Such precision is vital for ensuring perfect speed stability, a key factor in the performance and audio fidelity of Rega’s turntables.
PL10 PSU
The PL10 PSU, housed in a custom-designed case by Rega, is specifically dedicated to running their 24v low noise motor with utmost precision and quietness. This power supply unit stands out for its ability to offer unparalleled stability in motor control, convenient electronic speed change, advanced anti-vibration control, and user-adjustable electronic fine speed adjustment. These features collectively ensure total accuracy and control over the motor’s life.
The heart of the PL10 PSU’s performance lies in its use of a new DSP (Digital Signal Processing) generator, which is built upon a high stability crystal. This generator functions to accurately divide the square wave from the crystal into the exact frequency needed to rotate the platter at the selected speed.
Moreover, the DSP core is capable of generating a near-perfect sinusoidal waveform to power the motor. This leads to a significant enhancement in the performance of the turntable. Each PL10 PSU undergoes factory settings for vibration removal and fine speed adjustments. These adjustments are meticulously made to the power supply to tune each motor for optimal performance.
Dust Cover
In the latest design of their turntable, Rega has made a significant modification by removing the outer frame that was present in the previous model. This change is complemented by the introduction of a new, stylish feature – a removable, single-piece dustcover. This dustcover not only adds to the aesthetic appeal of the turntable but also plays a crucial role in reducing the overall mass of the turntable. This reduction in mass is a strategic design choice, aimed at enhancing the turntable’s performance by minimising any potential for unwanted resonance or vibration.
