My aluminium feet was designed to retrofit the current Rega rubber feet. For the older models of the Planar turntables which had much bigger rubber feet, these aluminium feet would not be compatible, I thought. It never occurred to me that there's a way to install them, so I didn't attempt to try also.

I was surprised to see how Marcel had done it. He shared with me "the secret" and the good news is: "Easy fix" according to him. And thanks to the wonder of online sharing, without which I wouldn't be able to post his ideas here to share with you!

Take a look at the upgrades, especially on the "big rubber feet", done by Marcel Mangelsdorf of Australia :

Hi Michael,  I have received your carefully packaged items and fitted them to the Rega Planar 3. Thank you for these beautifully machined items, they really enhance the aesthetic appeal of the deck as you can see in the pictures.  Top and bottom bracings, aluminium sub-platter upgrades  2.3mm VTA spacer upgrade My original feet were larger but fitted nicely with longer screws. With the top brace and 2mm spacer the threaded part of the arm base did not protrude enough for the nut to grab so I had a nut with an extended threaded sleeve machined and widened the opening in the base by a few mm to fit the nut. Easy fix.  Aluminium feet upgrade The improvement in sound is incredible. Pace, rhythm, deep base and clarity in the mid and high range are all there. Even the so so flexidiscs from the 70's and 80's sound a lot better. The cartridge fitted is a modest Sumiko Pearl MM but a great combination with the arm.  Record clamp  I did not expect the end result to be this good! I can thoroughly recommend your upgrades. They are also fantastic value for money.  Comment from my local Hifi dealer: this doesn't sound like a Rega at all; much better!  Kind regards,  Marcel Mangelsdorf

Thanks, Marcel !

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The bottom bracing was designed to increase the rigidity of my tired old Planar initially (both my own Planar 2 and Planar 3). But during designing stage, I had made allowance such that it could be used for other models like P1, RP1, P2, P3, P3-24, P5 and P25 as well.

Turntable owners (P1, RP1, P2, P3, P3-24, P25 and P5) didn't have any problem fixing the bottom bracings so far and they were happy with the sonic improvement brought about. In fact, it's easy to do the job as compared to top bracing in that the tonearm was not involved. However, there were two turntables owners (a Planar 2 and a Planar 3) encountered problem in aligning the main bearing and the three screw mounting holes for the feet. This was quite unexpected as the mounting holes were assumed to be the same for all Planars. My apologies to the two friends who had to put in extra effort in getting the job done.

With the feedbacks I was able to make bigger allowance for future orders so that you won't face the same problem.

Walter of California of USA, (the Planar 2 owner) had sent me pictures on how he filed a bit of the main bearing hole on the bracing in order to get the bracing fitted to his Planar.

I must thank Walter for his invaluable feedback which is very helpful to all of us.

Sharing with you here Walter's pictures and feedback :

Hi Michael, I purchased the following upgrades from you:  1. Dual pulley + silicone belts  2. Motor isolation base + thrust bearing  3. Top and bottom braces together + aluminium feet  4. Rubber cork mat for acrylic platter + VTA spacer  I already have a metal sub-platter with sapphire bearing , acrylic platter, metal end-stub and counter-weight from another supplier. They were installed a long time ago. I just found your website recently.  Upgrade Part 1  As you know, so far I have installed the Top and Bottom Braces, the aluminum feet and the cork mat with the VTA spacer. I had some problems with the Bottom Brace. The holes for the feet would not line up. They were off by approximately 1/4 inch. It seems that Rega drilled them a little off from the normal template. I sent you an email about how to rectify this but did not wait for a reply as the hardware stores were closing early due to the July 4th holiday. I decided that I should file away some metal around the bearing housing and had to run quickly to the hardware store to purchase a file I got everything I mentioned installed. I can send you a photo of the filing job if it would help someone else in my situation if you want. I can remove the nut and washers on the bearing housing when I install the motor isolation base. I am waiting for a pulley puller because I do not want to pull on the pulley in case something happens to my motor.  I did listen to the turntable right after the installation but everything was cold and I did not think it was the best way to audition the upgrades. Last night, I decided to some serious listening to the Rega Planar 2 after I installed some of your upgrades. I find everything is clearer with tighter, more controlled bass. The instruments are more focused. The voices are clearer and more natural sounding and the music seems louder than before at the same volume level.  If this is what happens with this part of the upgrades, I cannot wait to install the dual pulley and motor isolation base. Thanks for these upgrades. They are definitely worth the cost.  Regards,  Walter

Thanks, Walter!

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Sometime ago, Don C from USA wrote to me about "upgrading" his Rega Planar 78 to P2. Could it be done? Yes, pulley and sub-platter assembly was the trick and the procedure was straight forward, I told him.

Don carried out what's necessary to his Planar 78 TT as proposed immediately with my dual pulley and aluminium sub-platter. He was happy with the result and he shared his experience in Audiokarma with pictures.

Recently, there's another enquiry on the same issue. I told him about Don's story and solved his problem. I think there might be more Planar 78 owners who wish to go the same path so that they can spin 33/45rpm lps at the same time. Therefore it would be good to include here a link to Don's post in Audikarma as a reference for them.

Don C posted in Audiokarma.org : Rega Planar 78 -> P2 upgrades or " Throwing Money at a problem"

The only problem was that I had this (expensive) dedicated 78 player that was getting no use and I couldn't seem to sell it for anything close to what I had in to it. I decided that if I had to take a bath on it just to get rid of it (I couldn't manage to sell it for price of the tonearm alone; go figure.), I might as well keep it and throw money at it, instead, as it already had a P2 plinth, RB250 tonearm, 12" platter, and P25 motor assembly.  The original Rega 78 subplatter, plastic 78 motor pulley, and 78 belt were exchanged with Michael Lim (Malaysia) for a machined aluminum LP subplatter, stainless steel dual LP pulley (60Hz), and dual silicone belts. (He made a generous trade-in offer after I procured an OEM LP subplatter for a good price here on AK and was disappointed in the quality.)  I had to slightly modify a 2mm cork mat to accomodate the new subplatter sticking through the OEM fiberboard platter too much in the center and not allowing the LP to lay flat. An upgrade Acrylic platter is next on the list, as well as a real cartridge. (The RB78 cartridge was removed and a Shure M97xE is installed temporarily until a Nagaoka MP-500 comes my way. :D)  In stock (78) form:  new (dual) pulley:  new machined subplatter:  new (dual) silicone belts:  Nagaoka MP-500 goes here:  In position with 2mm cork mat and Nagaoka RC-401 record weight:

Don C has also commented in vinylengine :

Also a satisfied Michael Lim upgrader here.  I have a Rega P78 that was not very useful as a 78 only player. I converted it to 33RPM by ordering a new dual pulley, dual belts, new aluminum subplatter, and acrylic platter. I added a Nagaoka MP-500 for LP playing.

Thanks Don!

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