Rega Research Ltd. is a high-end audio equipment manufacturer based in the UK. Rega was founded in 1973. The company's name was formed of the initials of its two founders (RElph & Gandy). Historically Rega are best known for the Rega Planar turntable,for almost 40 years  the best bang for the buck  in turntables  under 4k. In recent years the company has diversified into a range of other hi-fi products and like Rega turntables they out perform nearly everything at twice their price!

REGA TURNTABLES

The Rega RP1 Turntable

Designed and engineered to achieve outstanding performance way beyond the expectations of a product at this price point.

Excellent build quality, reliability and ease of use combine to make a product which will offer a lifetime of musical enjoyment. Omitting all the usual gimmicks allows us to concentrate the manufacturing costs on the high quality parts necessary to reproduce records accurately.

Using a manual speed change rather than an automatic mechanism, eliminates speed inconsistencies and reduces wear of the drive belt. The money we save is spent across the design including a new hand assembled RB101 tonearm, precision main bearing, phenolic resin platter and a high quality low vibration motor which would normally be used on a turntable costing two or three times the amount.

The minimalist design of the Rega RP1 and the use of extremely high quality components ensure that this turntable will last for many years. The RP1 is the first in a new generation of Rega turntables offering far greater performance than their predecessors.

The Rega RP3 turntable.

The RP3 has been designed and engineered to achieve outstanding performance way beyond the expectations of a product at this price point. Excellent build quality, reliability and ease of use combine to make a product which, if used correctly, will offer a lifetime of musical enjoyment. Omitting unnecessary gimmicks allows us to concentrate the manufacturing costs on the high quality parts necessary to reproduce records accurately. The RP3 is fitted with a brand new hand assembled RB303 tonearm, precision main bearing and a low vibration low noise 24v motor assembly which is individually hand tuned to its circuit to further reduce vibration.

DB Technology (Double Brace Technology)

"Mass absorbs energy - lost energy equals lost music"! Rega has pioneered the use of lightweight rigid plinths. Clever use of lightweight particulate core with a highly rigid phenolic resin skin became the foundations of the high level of performance achieved by the now iconic Planar turntable range. The RP3 takes this design philosophy to the next level. A super lightweight plinth combined with a phenolic resin double brace mounted specifically where the increased rigidity is required (between the tonearm mounting and the main hub bearing) forms a structurally sound "stressed beam" assembly. This rigid plinth design prevents energy absorption and unwanted resonances which will add unnatural distortions to the music. Equally, heavier mass can transfer more unwanted energy such as motor or bearing noise directly into the rotating record. The use of braces instead of the complete skin allows double thickness phenolic resin in these key areas while providing further weight reduction to the plinth which directly addresses the issue of mass absorption and unwanted energy transmission.

RB303 Tonearm - Making the best better

RP6 Turntable

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The RP6 has been designed and engineered to achieve outstanding performance way beyond the expectations of a product at this price point. Excellent build quality, reliability and ease of use combine to make a product which, if used correctly, will offer you a lifetime of musical enjoyment. Omitting unnecessary gimmicks allows us to concentrate the manufacturing costs on the high quality parts necessary to reproduce music accurately. The RP6 is fitted with a hand assembled RB303 tonearm, precision main bearing and a low vibration low noise 24v motor assembly which is individually hand tuned to its circuit to further reduce vibration. The minimalist design of the Rega RP6 and the use of extremely high quality components ensure that your turntable should last for many years.

RB303 Tonearm

Designed using the latest 3D CAD technology the new RB303 is the culmination of more than 30 years of tonearm design experience. Due to advances in technology we have been able to fine tune the iconic RB300 tonearm design. Featuring a brand new tube which has increased rigidity to the bearing housing, arm carrier and headshell coupled with intelligent redistribution of mass, ensure this arm will exhibit fewer points of possible resonance. Extreme stability with almost friction free movement from the high precision bearing assemblies guarantee to gather more information from your vinyl than ever before.

TTPSU power supply (pictured below)

The compact TT-PSU uses a high stability crystal locked low distortion sine wave generator. This, along with an efficient drive amplifier fed from a stabilised DC power supply, generates a 24V AC balanced signal of less than 0.05% distortion, which is completely un-affected by any changes in the mains/line voltage and conditions. This then drives the improved Rega anti-vibration circuit built into the RP6 motor PCB.

Platter adaptor

The aluminium top hub adaptor is manufactured to the highest tolerance and uses a six point mounting system to ensure the platter and vinyl is presented as flat as possible to the stylus.

NEW DB Technology (Double BraceTechnology)

“Mass absorbs energy - lost energy equals lost music”! Rega has pioneered the use of lightweight rigid plinths. Clever use of lightweight particulate core with a highly rigid phenolic resin skin became the foundations of the high level of performance achieved by the now iconic Planar turntable range. The latest generation of Rega turntables takes this design philosophy to the next level. A super lightweight plinth combined with a phenolic resin double brace mounted specifically where the increased rigidity is required (between the tonearm mounting and the main hub bearing) forms a structurally sound “stressed beam” assembly. This rigid plinth design prevents energy absorption and unwanted resonances which will add unnatural distortions to the music. Equally, heavier mass can transfer more unwanted energy such as motor or bearing noise directly into the rotating record. The use of braces instead of the complete skin allows double thickness phenolic resin in these key areas while providing further weight reduction to the plinth which directly addresses the issue of mass absorption and unwanted energy transmission.

16MM Glass flywheel platter
The RP6 features an innovative two piece platter design constructed from float glass. Manufactured using a complex and labour intensive invisible UV curing bond technique the secondary ring platter is permanently bonded to the underside of the main platter. The extra ring adds mass to the outer circumference which increase the natural flywheel effect of the platter improving speed stability, accuracy and consistency.

24V Low noise motor

The motor is a high specification, 24V twin phase synchronous unit which has the anti vibration circuit hand tuned to each motor and is controlled by Rega's unique and innovative TTPSU power supply. The motor drives the CNC machined pulley and sub platter/hub-bearing assembly via the belt drive.

Brio-R                 

The Brio–R embodies all the necessary ingredients. Substantial toroidal transformer, generous power supply components, rugged output stage, the use of film capacitors in the signal path and at all critical positions within the phono amplifier.

New output amplifier
Developed by our engineers a newly designed output amplifier using a low source impedance emitter follower Class A driver stage. Based around a complementary pair of 150w Sanken Darlington output transistors, this combination forms a complementary emitter follower emulating Class A conditions with good thermal stability and lower standing currents in the driver stage.

Remote Control
Remote control has been added to the Brio-R without compromising the sonic design of the amplifier. This was achieved by keeping the remote circuit separate to the audio circuit and having its own dedicated power supply.
There is no direct contact between the micro-controller and the signal path, the micro-controller controls the relays whilst the volume control motor uses DC control voltages.

High quality components
The Brio-R utilises the highest quality components and our engineers' experience to achieve the best sonic performance.
Ensuring it is the most advanced and feature packed Brio to date.

Improved power supplies
During the Brio-R design process Rega reviewed the circuit and improved the low and high current power supplies, coupling and bypass capacitors. The phono stage has been improved to reflect the current improvements in the Rega Planar turntables, where the input sensitivity has been increased along with a revision of the
sub 100Hz part of the phono frequency response.

Custom Case & Design
Housed in a brand new custom case the Brio-R draws on the pedigree of the previous three incarnations of this model.
The sonic recipe for the Brio-R embodies the best in traditional audio circuits with excellent engineering practice.

Apollo-R

Design technology
The Apollo-R is the result of many years of innovation, advanced software development and elegant engineering solutions researched by our highly skilled team of engineers and designers. It took the completion of two of our multi award winning products, the flagship Isis CD player and the Rega DAC to pave the way for a unique product we feel encapsulates everything the new Apollo-R should be.

Design history
The original Apollo CD player launched in 2005. It was a huge success selling approaching 20,000 units worldwide. The Apollo was a unique player featuring Rega’s own software and control system ensuring no other manufacturers player could sound the same. This key element is carried forward and improved into Apollo-R.

Analogue & digital outputs
Development of the analogue, digital and control domains ensured direct improvements of both analogue and digital outputs making the Apollo-R a perfect partner for the Rega Brio-R amplifier and an ideal ‘CD format’ front-end for the Rega DAC. The Apollo-R internal circuitry has also been improved by tightening the PCB layout.

Compact case design
Apollo-R is a top loading design housed in a custom compact aluminium case matching the Rega DAC and Brio-R amplifier. The Apollo-R is available in both black or satin silver finish.

Dedicated CD mini system remote control
A new dedicated CD remote handset is supplied as standard which also has the advantage of Rega amplifier functionality .

Digital to analogue conversion
The DAC and the output amplifier of the Apollo-R have been enhanced using the Wolfson WM8742 digital to analogue converter, the same integrated circuit found in the Rega DAC.

Power supplies
The ‘digital’ power supplies feeding the CD processor, optical block, laser diode amplifier and slicer have been enhanced. This is achieved by using the same high performance low noise power supplies found in the same location within the Isis CD player. This vastly improves the playability, error correction and the ‘inner core’ processing of the digital CD ‘spinner’ part of the Apollo-R.

Output amplifier
The discrete output amplifier has been tweaked to reduce the overall THD from typically 0.005% to 0.0025%, whilst at the same time improving the overall sound quality of the output amplifier.

DAC

Maximise the potential of your digital audio.

The Rega DAC is a 16/20/24-bit at 32kHz to 192kHz digital to analogue converter incorporating an enhanced version of the Rega designed circuit. Developed to be simple to set up and use, the Rega DAC is designed to optimise performance from any two channel PCM digital audio source such as a CD player PC or streaming device.

With the PC/Laptop and MAC now widely accepted as creditable mediums for storing and streaming music. The use of high quality lossless files such as WAV, FLAC and ALAC offer performance through the DAC equal to and in some cases better than red book CD.

Housed in a custom aluminium and steel case and boasting a pair of Wolfson DAC IC's, 5 user selectable digital filters, two isolated Co-axial inputs, two Toslink SPDIF inputs and an isolated USB input. The Rega DAC is designed and engineered to perform way above its class.

The input stage comprises a Wolfson digital receiver with a high stability low jitter clock. The receiver and PLL have their own dedicated power supplies. The DAC stage comprises of a pair of parallel-connected Wolfson WM8742 DAC's, which are driven via a buffer stage, which ensures the integrity of the data being fed to the DAC IC's similar to the arrangement used in the Isis (Rega's refrerence CD player). Great care has been taken to remove noise generated by the PC and other input sources. During development this was identified as a major drawback with many DAC's on the market today.

The output amplifier employs a discrete differential multiple feedback filter and output amplifier, with a high cut-off frequency for use with higher sample rates. We decided not to use a sample rate converter and process the data at the incoming sample rate which keeps the signal processing to a minimum. Jitter was minimised by synchronously clocking the digital data with our receiver PLL (removing any jitter from the input signal).

All the capacitors associated with the analogue signal path are Nichicon FG bypassed with MMK polyester capacitors, and low impedance conductive polymer capacitors are used for DAC decoupling. The power supply utilizes a toroidal transformer, fast rectifier diodes and again Nichicon FG capacitors. There is a power supply for the control microcontroller, separate from the digital & analogue audio stages. Special attention being paid to the inter IC control signals ensuring the control data noise is kept to a minimum.