Rega Planar 1 Plus

[southall-1998_mk2]

Have a small confession to make first. I've always (kinda) liked the rather neat tidy appearance of the Rega Planar turntable. The straightforward simplicity never gets old.

I've owned a few of the regular Planar 1 (RP1) in the past. The last one had the performance pack upgrade. To be straight up honest I wasn't really that much keen on the bias 2 cartridge. To my ears, the bias 2 lost the fun musical bounce that you get from the cheaper carbon. Can happily live with the carbon, well pretty much forever!

Please bare in mind I'm not a turntable fanatic. So things like tweaking, adjustments & upgrades etc is not my style.

I quite like the idea of the Planar 1 Plus coming with built in phono stage.

Anyone using Planar 1 Plus?

S.

[hifi_dave]

I've sold a couple of them.

[REW]

I have auditioned one and then a Planar 2 and subsequently a Planar 3. If you can run to a 2 I think it is a big step up in scale and natural presentation on the 1 and that is with the Carbon too. The 3 less of a step though it did not include the Carbon so I can't say whether any benefit would be had with that cartridge. So for me, 2 is probably the value sweet spot.

[Wegamus]

I had the RP1 a few years ago (bought from Dave, above). I gave it to a friend to replace his awful Crossley thing after I upgraded to an SME deck. He still uses it with a NAD PP2 and Denon mini system and he loves it. Not the most refined sound of course, but I enjoyed it whilst my small record collection grew.

[hifi_dave]

What's not to like ?

[Phil Bishop]

I'll throw a spanner in the works by saying that having owned several Regas from RP3 and current P3 upwards to RP8 I think the current P3 is the sweet spot value-for-money-wise. That said, I have not heard the P1 and P2. Personally, I don't rate Rega MM cartridges apart from the humble Carbon. I'd go AT or Goldring up to around £100 (my current favourites).

[cjm123]

Although I have not heard the Planar 1 Plus I have also owned a number of Rega turntables over the years including an RP1,P3 2000, RP3, current Planar 3 and RP8 and I have also listened to the current Planars 1, 2 and 3 back to back. I agree with Ron's comments above that the Planar 2 is currently the best value for money. It is significantly better than the Planar 1 with Rega Carbon and TBH preferred it to the Planar 3 except for the inability to adjust the bias.

I am a fan of Rega's budget decks however I think the decision to leave out the Bias adjustment on the Planars 1 & 2 is a retrograde step.I also think the switch underneath the plinth is fiddly..a case of form over function and in my opinion very un-Rega like.

BTW FWIW and IMHO the best Rega deck I have owned was the P3 2000. It just sounded right and I wish I had not got rid of it in a misplaced bout of upgraditis...You live and learn but in my case it seems not necessarily the latter:doh: