ON TEST
44 Australian Hi-Fi ˹˹˹ƖŘˁʊǒǔǞƖƋɁȧ
Rega Planar 8 Turntable
When the massed choir finally enters, the
Rega Apheta 2 captures and delivers not only
the individual voices, but the acoustic of the
hall as well.
CONCLUSION
Just as most famous orchestras around the
world are now using blind auditions for
prospective members so the appointment
panellists can’t judge by age, gender or physical
attractiveness, I would recommend you do
exactly the same when auditioning Rega’s Pla-
nar 8, because I don’t think it looks particularly
attractive and also, visually at least, you don’t
appear to be getting a lot for your money.
But pause and take a moment to think
about why you’re buying a turntable in the first
place. Is it just so that it looks good in your lis-
tening room, or that it looks as if you paid a lot
of money for it? Or is it so that you can enjoy
great sound from your LP collection?
If youransweris thelatter,you’llknow
whattobuy! Colin Lawson
CONTACTDETAILS
Brand: Rega
Model: Planar 8
RRP: $3,499 (See Copy)
Warranty: Three Years
Distributor: Synergy Audio Visual
Address: 107 Northern Road
Heidelberg Heights NSW 3081
T: (03) 9459 7474
E: [email protected]
W: http://www.synergyaudio.com̴ Superior technical performance
̴ Excellent sound̴ Dustcover
̴ Non-removable headshell
20 Hz 50 100 200 500 1K 2K 5K 10K 20KdBm-95-90-85-80-75-70-65-60-555045
Newport Test LabsGraph 1. Frequency response and channel separation, Rega Apheta 2 MC phono cartridge.LABORATORY
TEST
REPORT
*Rega’s book A Vibration Measuring Machine (ISBN:
978-1-782-80781-0), written by Bill Philpot, Paul Mes-
senger and Roy Gandy, is available only in hardcover,
and only direct from Rega [www.rega.co.uk/a-vibra-
tion-measuring-machine.html] and at the time of going
to press costs £39.50 plus—for us here in Austral-
ia—£19.00 for postage.
themeasurement—somethingthatis fairly
difficulttoavoidwhenmeasuringlow-out-
putmovingcoilcartridgesina laboratory
environment.If youlookatthesectionofthe
graphfrom70Hzupward,responselinear-
ityis betterthan±2dB.Onthesamegraph
youcanseethatchannelseparationofthe
Apheta2 cartridgeis 21dBat1kHz,rather
lessthanthe29dBspecifiedbyRega,buta
fairresultnonetheless.Moreimportantly,
channelseparationis maintainedataround
20dBfrom200Hzrightupto8kHz,which
is anexcellentresult.Channelbalancewas
0.9dB,veryclosetospecification.
Overall,boththeRegaPlanar8 turnta-
bleandtheRegaApheta2 MCphono
cartridgedeliveredexcellentresults
acrossallthetestsperformedbyNewport
TestLabs. Steve Holding
(Note that the results mentioned in this report, and/
or displayed using graphs should be construed as apply-
ing only to the specific sample tested.)Newport Test Labs measured the wow
and flutter of the Rega Planar 8 at both
speeds and it was identical for both
speeds: 0.07% CCIR weighted and 0.018%
DIN weighted. These are excellent results.
Speed accuracy was perfect... again the
lab tested it at both speeds and the Rega
Planar 8 delivered a perfect result at both
speeds. The Planar 8’s overall signal-to-
noise ratio (rumble) was more than 70dB
down, also excellent. Newport Test Labs
measured the Rega Apheta 2 cartridge
using a pink noise test signal, which is a
particularly difficult test, as the cartridge
is required to produce all frequencies
within the audio band simultaneously,
whereas the measurements manufac-
turers use to derive their specifications
are made by measuring only a single
frequency at a time, and then ‘joining
the dots’, which is hardly a real-world
test. Tested using this signal, the Rega
Apheta 2 returned a measured frequency
response of 25Hz to 20kHz ±3dB. You
can see from Graph 1 that although this
is an excellent result, it would have been
even better without that ‘bump’ around
50Hz, which I suspect may have been
some mains-frequency hum creeping into