The Star - Review on acrylic Platter and record weight for Rega turntables

Monday February 1, 2010

A cracker of a platter

By LIM JUAN

REGA Research’s principal Roy Gandy is reputed to dislike anyone tinkering with or modifying his products. That hasn’t stopped anyone from doing so, though! There’s practically a secondary industry riding on Rega’s turntables, offering add-ons, modifications or substitutes for its tonearm, plinth, motor, power supply, sub-platter and, of course, platter.

It was a bit of a surprise for me then, when Asia Sound Equipment, the official local distributor of Rega’s products, asked me to follow up on my recent review of the P2 with their locally-made after-market substitute acrylic platter and record weight. Did I hear a loud sigh coming from Southend?

Fitting involved just substituting the acrylic platter for the original one, with no warranty-invalidating screwing or drilling required.

The sonic changes from the substitute platter took no effort to discern. The baked and pressured sawdust-glue original platter of the P2 couldn’t match the bigger acoustics, denser image with more specifics outlined, firmer bass (with less of the chesty upper bass emphasis of the original), clearer treble and plain all-round finer detail that the acrylic platter brought out from the P2.

Souping it up: The Performance Platter and record weight take your Rega to the next level.

The only downside I found was there was now a sense of clanginess to upper piano registers, which I was able to tame with the addition of the record weight (more on this below) and the Sumiko Analog Survival Kit mat which I normally employ on my similarly acrylic-plattered Roksan Radius V.

I felt the overall changes to positively augment and not detract from the strengths of the P2, the rhythmic drive and liveliness which makes it so attractive not being compromised. I was told this was one of the design objectives.

But an improved platter alone is not a cure-all. It still trailed the Roksan Radius V, noticeably in terms of pitch stability. I’m not commenting on other aspects not isolable to the turntable as a different arm-cartridge was in use. But given the price, I don’t think anyone would argue with the value for money improvements with the acrylic platter.

The weight is simply plonked over the centre spindle on top of the vinyl record with no irritating screwing in, twisting, or pressure fitting which record clamps involve. This allows record changes without the need to stop the motor. The weight brought a better sense of ease and focus to the sound, its effect much subtler than with the platter substitute, but still worthwhile. It seemed to work more noticeably with the more transparent sounding Radius V, though, for which I will probably buy it.

Even the glass plattered P3-24 was improved on, something an “audiophile wife” who was at Asia Sound with her husband to pick up their new red P3-24 readily agreed with – you should audition these after-market products if you have a Rega turntable below P7 grade.

Read more from the review from : The Star, Lifestyle - Audiofile