REGA P10 - FOLLOWUP
REGA P10 - FOLLOWUP
This is a followup on the Rega P10 review, which was initially reviewed by Andre Marc, a Senior Editor for audiokeyreviews.com. The earlier review of the Rega P10 can be found here: Rega P10. My followup/comparison comes as the Rega P8 and the Rega P10 were both in-house.
Suffice to say, in every conceivable way, the Rega P10 outperforms the P8, period. There is no wait-and-see moment and no extended observation necessary to immediately understand this truth.
Failure to understand this, would call into question one’s ability to hear and, in my opinion, would necessitate an immediate hearing appointment to confirm the level of hearing loss. No doubt, this will save them hundreds if not thousands of dollars on new components, for which they will not be able to discern any differences. However, for those able to easily discern the monumental difference, your hearing is good and still very much intact.
In the earlier review of the Rega P10, Andre mentions the P10’s ability to cast palpable, dimensional images into the listening room, which time and again had him repeating a given album, in order to understand just how well the P10 had performed.
I too replayed albums multiple times, so transfixed was the presentation, the singers, the musicians, who were decidedly more ‘in-room’ than they had been with CD players and streamers. This aspect represents just one of the many reasons for the chasm in difference between the Rega P10 and the P8. Resolution, detail, transparency, background quiet, dynamics, staging are other aspects of the P10’s performance, which enforce and grow the chasm of performance between them. To hear the P8 and subsequently the P10, for those who are not Hi-Fi hearing impaired, is either to shell out the extra bucks for the the P10 or to have serious laments, in not being able to afford it. Thereafter, one would, perhaps, dread the fact they did not heed this advice.
It’s important to note, as I mentioned in the P8’s review, both the P8 and P10 easily outperformed turntables, whose cartridges and/or their tonearms were more expensive than either the P8 or P10. In this respect, it does make one wonder just how good the Rega NAIAD, their concept turntable, is relative to its siblings.
The question, of course, must be asked. What makes the P10 so much better, incredibly so, than the P8 from a design perspective? Well, below are the design differences which, collectively, place the P10 on a ‘quantum level’ above the P8. These differences are listed below in the ‘Design Section’ of this review update.
REFRAIN: Unlike most reviews, this review will be non-sequential, as it will start with how the equipment actually sounds and not the process of physically “undressing” it and/or laying out its various accoutrement, specifications, etc. Think of this review then, as a non-linear movie—Memento, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, etc—that, likewise, starts at the end and winds its way to the beginning.
The Review System
CEC TL3.3 CD Transport (TL 2N equivalent, up-converted 120V)
Shanling ONIX XST20 SACD/CD Transport
Bricasti Design M1SE DAC w/ethernet
Rega P8 Turntable w/Ania Pro cartridge
Rega P10 Turntable w/Apheta cartridge
Aurorasound Step-Up Transformer
Grimm Audio PW1 Phono Preamplifier
Allnic ASRA 7500 HPA/Integrated
Allnic HPA-300B Headphone Amplifier/Integrated
Atma-Sphere MP-3 Preamplifier
Atma-Sphere S-30 Amplifier
Aurorasound HFSA-01 Integrated/Headphone Amplifier
Lyric Audio Ti 100 MkII Integrated
Audience FrontRow Reserve Cables/Wires
BlackCat Level 2 Setsuna Interconnects
BlackCat Level 3 Setsuna Speaker Cables
BlackCat TRON AES/EBU and SPDIF Digital Cables
Grimm Audio SQM Interconnects (XLR, RCA)
Kubala-Sosna Realization Speaker Cables
RSX Technology BEYOND and MAX Power Cords
Devore Fidelity Orangutan O/96 Speakers
TORUS RM20 Power Conditioner
SEISMION Amplifier Stand (powered)
The Sound
In truth, to say, the P10 is better in everyway; in every aspect of musical reproduction; in its technical proficiency; its rendering of the frequency spectrum, its presentation of space and ambiance and air; its ability to unfurl the soundstage, and its natural, life-like presentation, relative, to the P8, says it all. Collectively, this places the Rega P10, again, a chasm between the P10 and the P8, with regard to ability. It is thus not necessary to provide further ‘sound’ information, as detailed in the Rega P8’s ‘Sound’ section of its review.
Please find my review of the Rega P8 here and when reading its sound profile, again, understand the P10 is better in every respect.
The Design—Look and Feel
I repeat below the same information on the P10 as it follows with the same design specifications, which issue down from Rega’s NAIAD concept turntable.
“The design specifications for the P8 and the P10 flow down from Rega’s ‘concept car’ or its concept turntable, the NAIAD ($40k). The NAIAD is a, no-holds-barred, asymmetric assault on state-of-the-art in turntable design. Asymmetric in that Rega takes a very different approach to the ‘more mass’ wins the day concept. Rega’s approach is, in fact, ‘less mass’ wins the day, which the NAIAD, the P10, and the P8 fully embody.
You’ve seen the ‘more mass’ wins the day reference turntables perched upon steel, acrylic, and/or aluminum thrones weighing in at over 100kgs, with multiple platters spinning in opposite directions to ‘balance the mass’ and ‘the momentum of the mass’. The concept is that more mass eliminates vibration, which is the bane to LP playback. Or does it?
Rega, on the other hand, eliminates and minimizes mass and counts instead on rigidity, across a turntable’s inherent points of movement—rotation, flexing, bending. The NAIAD, via years of research, in this respect, employs innovative materials in addition to eliminating mass, which has apparently accomplished the task of also eliminating vibration. And though I’ve not heard the NAIAD, I’ve heard its ‘siblings’—P8, P10—and via trickle-down effects, they are, truly, impressive. They represent, I believe, a qualitative improvement in high-fidelity vinyl playback. What both the P8 and the P10 have shown me is their ability to easily outperform turntables and even digital rigs, which I’ve recently heard and owned, at, literally, multiples of their price!”
The P10’s plinth, as mentioned in the P8 review, is also fashioned of Tancast 8 foam core and is skeletal in design. This also allows the P10 to efficiently dissuade vibration via its frame’s foam core, its double-brace technology, and by providing less overall mass to vibrate. The P10’s differences are its ceramic platter, its ceramic brace, its power supply, a new low mass bearing, and its Alpheta 3 cartridge, which together elevate it to level far above its sibling, the P8.
The P10 sports Rega’s RB3000 tonearm and comes without or with one of the following cartridges: Alpheta 3 (MC), Alphelion 2 (MC). The P10 like the P8 is a simple, straightforward affair, which is very easy to operate and maintain, and which, after required burn-in, sounds incredible. However, it too will absolutely need burn-in!
Conclusion
I stated in the P8’s review, it was a tour de force. The Rega P10, in all respects, creates a chasm in their respective abilities to, well, make music. I also alluded to the fact the “Rega P8 was less expensive than the tonearms and even the cartridges” of some very expensive turntables, which the P8 surpassed in many ways. The P10 goes it one better, while still being less expensive, with all but the Alphelion MC cartridge, than the expensive tonearms and even the cartridges of these much more expensive turntables.
The P10, like the P8 fully embraces a less-is-more philosophy, which, again, challenges the reigning orthodoxy. Further, the P10, as stated earlier, “proves there is another, more effective way, a road less traveled of reducing vibration and thus conveying the music in all of its respects”.
The Rega P10 easily wins our DIAMOND Award and our BREAKTHROUGH AWARD for its asymmetric, anti-orthodox innovation, its wonderful musical insight, and its technical brilliance. Bravo! Bravo!
The Company
Rega
Rega Planar 10 Turntable w/No Cartridge: $6,450
Rega Planar 10 Turntable w/Alpheta 3 Cartridge: $7,895
Rega Planar 10 Turntable w/Alphelion 2 Cartridge: $10,995
The Distributor
The Sound Organization
1009 Oakmead Drive
Arlington, TX 76011, US
soundorg.com