Rega Planar 1 Turntable, bakelite meets 21st century

When they build these record players in the factory in Southend in the U.K there is a man whose sole job is to assemble the tonearm bearing and he sets the tolerance on the tonearm to below one Micron. No other manufacturer engineers their budget record players so extremely by hand ... or comes even close to the Rega engineering tolerances at this price level.

This is simply the best budget turntable ... ever ... and they have made it look and feel so good.

The unique factory that builds these by hand in England has never advertised and never borrowed money. They are a law unto themselves and have only one aim which is simply to allow people to have the best music in their homes for the least money and the longest time.

Constructionally this is a device of extreme simplicity but exacting tolerances and critical use of materials. Roy Gandy (the founder and where the company name comes from) is all about building sensitive vibration measurement machines.

I used to play a game with millenials when I would show them the platter of the earlier model RP1 and say that if they could tell me what it was made of that I would give them the record player for free. I don't do it anymore ...

The platter is actually made of bakealite and is all part of the Mr Gandy's principle of building the turntable as a vibration sensing instrument. Most people associate it with Radios and Telephones from the thirties and forties, it is uniquely appropriate in this engineering context and is a far better solution than the cheap alloy and MDF normally used as the platter material iin budget turntables.

These classic Turntables come in a Matt White, Matt Black and a Walnut finish. The Walnut finish is $699

 A visit to the Rega factory last year

Official website for the Rega Planar 1

"The Audiophile Man" reviews the Planar 1