Setting up a Rega Planar 3 and what cartridge?

[Macca]

I got a Rega 3 for my mate whose been banging on about wanting one for the last twenty years. I told him to get an SL1200 but the Rega is his dream deck and it had to be that.

The deck is absolutely perfect, even Andre would not find fault with the cosmetics and it has an RB300 arm.

I have set the deck up on a glass/chrome TV stand as far from the 'speakers as possible (it's a small room 12'x11.5'). Some questions:

1) I have balanced the arm out but as there are no markings on the counterweight how do you set VTF? Do you have to use a scale?

2)Is a wall shelf really necessary to get the best form the deck? The floor is solid, you can jump up and down next to the deck with no effect on the sound.

3) Levelling - the floor of the room is not quite level and the feet do not seem to be adjustable so I have levelled the deck using playing cards under the feet. Am I missing something here? The TV stand cannot be lvelled itself btw

4)What cart to get? - My mate's 75ED is beyond redemption so I fitted a Stanton 520V3 just as a stopgap so he could listen to the deck. Up to £150 to spend here, but the cheaper the better.

Thanks

Martin

[Beobloke]

(1) You balance the arm with the tracking force dial on the right of the bearing set to '0' and then dial up the figure your cartridge requires.

(2) No, not really. The Regas I have used have always been fine on light tables and if you can't shift the stylus by jumping up and down then you're probably OK!

(3) This is fine, but proper carbon fibre, audiophile cryogenically treated playing cards will give a better result. :D

(4) As to cartridge, £30 worth of AT95E takes a heck of a lot of beating in my opinion but if you have up to £150 to spend, then the Ortofon 2M Red and Blue and the Goldring 1012 work well in the Rega - the Ortofons are punchier and more detailed, the 1012 is smoother. If your friend prefers a smoother presentation still, try a Nagaoka.

[hifi_dave]

Set the tracking weight and the bias dials to zero, then balance the arm so that it floats, using the c/weight. You then dial in the desired tracking weight and bias but set the bias dial to half a gramme less than the tracking weight.

Simples.

Don't lose sleep over levelling and you appear to have done the necessary. A wall shelf is desirable as it is with most TT's but if the rack is not transmitting significant energy to the TT, leave it as it is.

The cartridge you have fitted is OK but as an alternative, check Rega's own or an Ortofon. I expect you will now be inundated with hundreds of alternatives.

[Stratmangler]

I have balanced the arm out but as there are no markings on the counterweight how do you set VTF? Do you have to use a scale?

Yes.


Is a wall shelf really necessary to get the best form the deck? The floor is solid, you can jump up and down next to the deck with no effect on the sound

I would get the deck off the glass & chrome tv stand - the stand will put unwanted resonance energy back into the deck.
Whether the deck is on a shelf or not is probably immaterial - a Lack table from Ikea might be a better support than the TV stand.


Levelling - the floor of the room is not quite level and the feet do not seem to be adjustable so I have levelled the deck using playing cards under the feet. Am I missing something here? The TV stand cannot be lvelled itself btw

On second thoughts put the TT on a wall shelf and make sure the shelf is level


What cart to get? - My mate's 75ED is beyond redemption so I fitted a Stanton 520V3 just as a stopgap so he could listen to the deck. Up to £150 to spend here, but the cheaper the better

The AT120E/T has had nice things said about it on forums
https://shop.mantra-audio.co.uk/acatalog/Audio_Technica_Cartridges.html

[Macca]

(1) You balance the arm with the tracking force dial on the right of the bearing set to '0' and then dial up the figure your cartridge requires.

.

Ah! I thought that dial was the bias adjust.

I think I'll order him an AT95 and see how he gets on with that, not sure he really needs anything really fancy to listen to the Ramones and Judas Priest :lol:

BTW I'm a bit pissed off that I managed to miss your B & 0 System on Sunday, so hard to get around everything. If you miss a door you can miss a whole corridor of rooms - what a maze!

[hifi_dave]

The dial is tracking weight and the slider is bias.

[Macca]

The dial is tracking weight and the slider is bias.

Cheers Dave - the deck came with all the instructions but they are mostly a list of obvious 'don'ts', you know like 'Do not pour hot porridge all over the deck as this will impair it's performance' I guess the modern version has a proper manual.

[hifi_dave]

It does but it is also strictly pragmatic - don't worry, don' lose sleep, just enjoy..:)

[Macca]

Got the AT95E as suggested, stopped at my mate's house on the way back from work and fitted it (with some huffing and puffing and bad language) to the Rega.

Wow! What a sound for £30! I really cannot believe how good this deck now sounds. He is over the moon with it, I left him playing records smiling like a 10 yr old on Xmas morning.

The whole combo (deck arm cart) cost £210. Real value for money.

Thanks for your help lads :cool: It is much appreciated.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

It does but it is also strictly pragmatic - don't worry, don' lose sleep, just enjoy..:)

The manual for the 301 (I think we spoke about it?) is one of te best manuals for anything hifi I have read ...
I might as well have just said "get your head out of your arse, stop worrying about things unnecessarily, and enjoy your new arm!"

[hifi_dave]

Rega are all about sensible, no nonsense, fit n forget hi-fi.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Probably why they get so much stick on hifi forums I suppose ... "Fit and forget? But that would let me think about listening to music?"
(currently enjoying listening to my untweaked rb301 :))
I'll get me coat