Rega PL10 Turntable - White, Apheta 3 Cartridge

Recommended Component 2023 – Stereophile

Editor's Choice Award – Hi-fi Choice Magazine

Editor's Choice Award – the-ear.net

"A Masterpiece and Any Owner Will Feel Proud to Have One"

For its new Planar 10 turntable, Rega turned to its most advanced materials and engineering solutions built around a supremely lightweight plinth to ensure the greatest level of performance.

Like its sibling the Planar 8, the Planar 10 was inspired by the ultimate Rega turntable, the Naiad. Rega decided early on that instead of being an evolution of the previous RP10, the new Planar 10 should be developed and engineered to encapsulate the essence of the Naiad at a more affordable price.

"My Highest Possible Recommendation"

"This turntable set new standards for me for its exceptionally low noise floor and, as a result, the quietness of its musical presentation. The music just emerged from a pitch-black background, fully defined spatially within a deep, wide, and tall soundstage, allowing me to hear into the music and focus on all sorts of lovely details and niceties," raves Stephen Scharf, The Absolute Sound, July 19, 2021. "What more could one ask for? Unequivocally, my highest possible recommendation."

"Recommended Component" Honors

Stereophile honored the Planar 10 by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2023. "The newly revised Planar 10 represents the pinnacle of Rega's high-tech and extremely well-thought-out minimalism…. MF found the sound of the new P10 to be 'fast, tight, well-defined, tuneful, and exciting on the bottom,'adding that 'anyone who thinks a lightweight 'table can't produce deep, tuneful, and well-sculpted bass should listen to the P10.'

Exotic Materials and a New Tonearm

The Planar 10 narrows the gap between itself and the Naiad by using more exotic materials, carefully selected to reduce mass and improve rigidity throughout the design. New innovations in hub bearing, sub platter, motor, and drive belt design have led to even greater accuracy in turntable speed, which directly improve sound performance.

The Planar 10 features Rega's new RB3000 tonearm fitted with an improved, low mass, precision bias housing. Rega pioneered a completely new low mass, central hub bearing assembly with improved mechanical integrity. For the first time on a Rega production turntable, a ceramic top brace delivers ultimate rigidity and accuracy while creating the perfect platform between tonearm and central bearing. Finally, this entirely new player is controlled by the company's most advanced electronic power supply housed in a brand-new, full metal custom case designed to match the latest range of Rega electronics.

"A Bona Fide Ultra-Fi Bargain"

"The Planar 10 is a masterpiece and any owner will feel proud to have one of the company's finest achievements," raves Hi-fi Choice, which honored it with an Editor's Choice Award and a Five Star review. "It manages to deliver a performance that is outstanding even at the relatively lofty price point, and it does so while retaining the same joy and charm the company holds dear."

"I have not yet been able to stop playing old favourites on the P10 and don’t expect the urge to subside any time soon," reports Jason Kennedy, the-ear.net. "There is a better turntable and arm combination out there it’s called the Rega Naiad, but last time I looked it cost £25,000 and was in very short supply. There may be others of course but certainly not at anywhere the asking price here, the Planar 10 is a bona fide ultra-fi bargain."

Ultra-lightweight Plinth

The Planar 10 is the third Rega turntable constructed using Rega's latest technology, the ultra-lightweight Tancast 8 polyurethane foam core (a material developed for the aerospace industry). This material is sandwiched between two layers of HPL (high pressure laminate). HPL is exceptionally thin and extremely rigid. This new construction makes the new Planar 10 skeletal plinth 30% lighter than the original RP10, while offering increased rigidity over the previous model.

Double Brace Technology

As Rega puts it, "Mass absorbs energy; lost energy equals lost music." A super lightweight plinth combined with a ceramic top brace and phenolic resin bottom brace mounted specifically where the increased rigidity is required (between the tonearm mounting and the main hub bearing) forms a structurally sound, stressed beam, assembly. This rigid plinth design prevents energy absorption and unwanted resonances which will add unnatural distortions to the music. Equally, heavier mass can transfer more unwanted energy such as motor or bearing noise directly into the rotating record.

The tonearm and cartridge must to be able to read accurately, directly from the platter. This unique Rega double brace solution enables this. The use of braces instead of the complete skin allows increased thickness in these key areas, while providing further weight reduction to the plinth which directly addresses the issue of mass absorption and unwanted energy transmission.

RB3000 Tonearm

Rega is renowned for the quality of its tonearm bearing assemblies – in particular for the accurate manufacturing of its bearing housing and bearing spindles. Technical characteristics such as 'roundness' and 'parallel-ity' 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. Rega's 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 Rega's 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 Rega's latest award-winning, aluminum arm tube, which was redesigned to redistribute mass and further reduce stresses and resonances. Also, each arm tube is meticulously hand polished, keeping mass to an absolute minimum. This advanced design tube increases the stiffness and rigidity of the overall assembly while reducing stress on the bearings even further.

Hub Bearing Assembly

The Planar 10 demonstrates attention to detail and modern CNC engineering advances. This allows new compromises, bringing Rega’s main bearing design closer than ever to the unachievable ideal. The Planar 10 uses a new low mass central bearing assembly. A single piece machined aluminum sub-platter and hardened tool steel spindle run inside a custom brass housing designed with improved mechanical integrity. The complete assembly is cleverly mounted within the chassis to eradicate unwanted potential energy being transferred or stored in the plinth.

Custom Ceramic Platter

The P10 uses a custom ceramic, flywheel effect platter which contributes to the speed stability. The platter is produced from ceramic oxide powder, which is compressed, fired and diamond cut to ensure perfect accuracy and flatness across the surface. The latest platter features a modified construction with improved coupling to the sub platter.

24-Volt Low Noise Motor Assembly

The Planar 10 uses Rega's latest generation, 24-volt synchronous, low vibration motor technology. It is uniquely mounted using the highest level of coupling while retaining higher vibration isolation than any previous model. This new motor mounting technique (mounted from the bottom) has been taken directly from the ultimate Rega turntable, the Naiad. This mounting method removes all stress from the motor body whilst holding the drive pulley perfectly still. This enables better speed stability and accuracy from the turntable.

The reduced vibration and more rigid mounting deliver superior drive from the new EBLT drive belts. Also, each motor is hand tuned to match its own custom matched PL10 PSU power supply before fitting to the turntable in order to optimize the anti-vibration circuit.

EBLT Drive Belts

For three years, Rega has been researching and developing with chemists the use of a bespoke new rubber compound for drive belts. Using a specialized curing system, the new drive belt offers superior consistency of modulus (a constant representing the degree to which a substance has a particular property, especially elasticity). These new belts are manufactured on Rega-designed state-of-the-art, super-accurate tools (inspired by working with the manufacturer of high-tech Formula 1 engine parts) to produce 'perfectly round' and 'dimensionally accurate' belts, critical for perfect speed stability.

PL10 PSU Custom Matched Advanced Power Supply

The PL10 PSU offers the ultimate in motor control stability, convenient electronic speed change, advanced anti-vibration control, and user adjustable electronic fine speed adjustment to ensure total accuracy and control over the life of the motor. Housed in Rega's latest custom designed case, the PL10 PSU is dedicated to running Rega's 24-volt low noise motor as quietly and as accurately as possible.

The speed and control of the motor is achieved by using a new DSP (Digital Signal Processing) generator built upon a high stability crystal. This device will divide the accurate square wave from the crystal to the exact frequency required to turn the platter at the selected speed. The DSP core will also generate a near perfect sinusoidal waveform to power the motor. Factory set vibration removal and fine speed adjustments are then made to the power supply to tune each motor for optimal performance.

Dust Cover Included

The outer frame of the previous model has now been removed and a new stylish, removable, single piece dustcover has been introduced further reducing the overall mass of the turntable.

Optional Rega Apheta 3 MC Cartridge

The Planar 10 can be ordered with Rega's Apheta 3 MC cartridge as a factory fitted option. The Apheta 3 features a super high-powered, neodymium magnet and a coil meticulously hand wound on an iron cross that is fifty percent smaller than the MK1 model. This weight reduction delivers greater freedom to track the vinyl groove.

With the Apheta 3, Rega has pushed the envelope once again. For several years Rega has been developing state-of-the-art diamond profiles of a "Fine Line" design mounted through 90 degrees (the same technique used in the Aphelion reference model). This work has resulted in Apheta 3 extracting even more detail from the record grooves.

Optional Rega Aphelion 2 MC Cartridge

The Planar 10 can also be ordered with Rega's Aphelion 2 MC cartridge as a factory fitted option. Aphelion 2 is the Fourth generation of Rega's unique handmade moving coil cartridges. Taking the technology developed from the original Aphelion and the latest Apheta 3 to the next level, Rega engineers have now fine-tuned every aspect of the original designs.

The Aphelion 2 is the ultimate in micro engineering and design. Its unique hand-wound micro cross and coil assembly is built directly onto a Boron rod cantilever. The advanced ‘fine line’ profile nude diamond is then mounted through 90 degrees, which offers extreme levels of stiffness and control over the stylus. This design requires a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to engineering to achieve the highest level of performance.