ON TEST Rega Planar 8 Turntable
Rega apheta 2 CaRtRidge
My review sample Rega Planar 8 came with
a Rega Apheta 2 moving-coil cartridge
pre-fitted to the RB880. If you choose to do
the same, you’ll not only save yourself the
trouble of installing and aligning a cartridge,
but you’ll save $300 on the cost of an Apheta
2, because the retail price of a Rega Planar
8 is $3,499, and the retail of an Apheta 2 is
$2,199, but if you buy a Rega Planar 8 with
the Apheta 2 pre-installed, the price is only
$5,299. If you’d prefer a less costly cartridge,
Rega also offers a discount if you order the
Rega Planar 8 with an Ania moving-coil
cartridge (usually $999) pre-fitted. In this
case, a Rega Planar 8 with an Ania pre-fitted
retails for $4,299, a saving of $199.
The Apheta 2 moving-coil cartridge takes
the tech Rega developed for its original
Apheta to a whole new level. So far as the
generator is concerned, the coil is now
wound (by hand!) around an iron cross
that’s just half the size of the one used in the
Apheta, enabling a huge reduction in moving
mass. The cartridge body is a complete re-
design that combines a single-piece, anodised
aluminium body with a rigid polymer cover
that not only protects the internal wiring,
but lets you see inside the cartridge, to
admire the wondrous workpersonship. The
magnets are neodymium, the cantilever is
aluminium and the stylus is a nude diamond
with a line-contact (‘Vital’) profile.
Whereas many moving-coil cartridges use a
tie wire to restore the cantilever to its neutral
point, the Apheta 2 uses a rhomboid pivot to
do this, in order to avoid the use of a tie wire.
According the Rega, it does this because it says
that tie-wires create high-amplitude high-fre-
quency resonances (at 8–12kHz) that are usu-
ally removed by incorporating a foam damper
along with the tie wire. The problem with this
‘solution’, according to Rega, is that the foam
rubber deteriorates with age and when it does,
the structure will ‘vibrate’ and ‘ring’.
Rega says that its ‘rhomboid’ pivot is
unique, and the rhomboid shape of its pivotpoint may very well be unique, but some
other moving-coil cartridge manufacturers
also avoid the use of tie-wires and damping
foams via the use of shaped pivot points or
other methods, for example the system used
in Miyajima cartridges.
The Rega Apheta 2 is a low-output device
(nominally 350μV) so you’ll certainly need
to use a step-up device. If you choose to use
an active device, and it has adjustable input
settings, you should set that device to present
a load impedance of 100Ω and a load capaci-
tance of 1,000pF.
It’s very important to note that in com-
mon with almost all moving-coil cartridges,
the Rega Apheta 2’s stylus is not user-re-
placeable, so when that stylus becomes too
worn to provide playback to your satisfaction
(which could be anywhere between 500 and
2,000 hours depending on how critically
you listen, so between one and four years
depending on how often you listen) Rega
recommends that you replace the cartridge,
using its ‘new for old’ cartridge swap system.
This is where you take your worn-out Apheta
2 back to your hi-fi dealer who will then sell
you a new one at 20 per cent off whatever the
current RRP might be. At today’s prices, this
means that a replacement Apheta 2 will cost
you $1,759. The alternative to this ‘Alad-
din’s Lamp’ arrangement is to commission a
specialist cartridge repair outfit to re-tip your
Apheta 2. Typically, such a re-tip will run you
around $300 for a Shibata profile diamond,
around $400 for a line contact (Vital) profile
diamond and up to around $600 if you want
an even-more exotic profile. (These prices do
not include shipping and insurance costs.)in Use and Listening
sessions
Rega recommends that you position the Neo
PSU as far away from the phono cartridge
as possible, which isn’t hard to do, as the
connecting cord is an incredible 1.86 metres
long (so Rega obviously wants you to move it
a looong way away!). Note also that the PSUdoesn’t get its power from your mains sup-
ply... it is connected (via another long—1.8
metre—cable) to a ‘plug-pack’ power supply
that first converts the 240V a.c. from your
mains down to 24-volts before sending this
voltage to the Neo PSU. I found this plug-
pack could get a little warm after a while,
so I’d consider switching it off whenever
you’re not using the turntable. This is not
only the safest option, but also the ‘greenest’
since the plug-pack draws (and dissipates as
heat) 0.42 watts even when you’re not using
it. When you are using it, it draws around
10-watts. I was a little surprised at the plug-
pack’s output voltage, because usually, in
order to provide a really stable 24-volt voltage
(as in the case of Rega’s PSU) it’s preferable
for the supply voltage to be a little higher
than 24-volts.
As noted earlier, the Neo PSU enables elec-
tronic speed change between 33.33rpm and
45rpm via a front panel switch, and when
you change speeds, the colour of the Rega
logo on the front panel changes to indicate
your selected speed. I was rather surprised
to find that the display colour for ‘45rpm’ is
green and that for ‘33.33rpm’ is red. I found
this surprising because Rega’s ‘corporate’
colour is green, so I would have thought it
would have chosen this colour for the speed
that will undoubtedly be the most-used.
For the purpose of this review, I used a
Rega Aura Reference MC Stage as a head
amplifier, kindly loaned by the local dis-
tributor to aid with the preparation of this
review. It’s by far the largest and heaviest
phono pre-amp I have ever used. It measures
435×350×88mm and weighs 13kg. It offers
resistance load settings of 50Ω, 100Ω, 150Ω,
300Ω and 400Ω, capacitance load settings
of 1000pF, 2000pF, 3200pF, 4300pF, and
5700pF and has two gain settings—63.5dB
and 69.5dB. It also offers a mute switch and a
mono switch. As well as unbalanced outputs,
the Rega Aura also offers balanced outputs and
you can use either or both, depending on your
application.