And yet the Planar 3 turntable has been in continuous production for nearly fifty years, the Brio amplifier regularly beats rivals costing twice as much, and used Rega equipment holds its value on the pre-owned market in a way that only happens when people who own it do not want to let it go.
Roy Gandy founded Rega Research in 1973 and has run it ever since. The company is privately owned and has never needed to chase fashion or compromise on engineering to satisfy shareholders. That independence shows in how the products are made and how long they last.
The philosophy behind the sound
Rega builds turntables around two principles that have not changed since the 1970s: rigidity and low mass. The argument is that a stiff, lightweight structure passes vibration through quickly rather than storing it and releasing it back into the stylus in a smeared, time shifted form. Rather than floating the platter assembly on springs to isolate it from the outside world, Rega made the structure rigid enough that vibration passes through it and dissipates before it can cause harm.
This puts Rega in direct philosophical opposition to Linn, who launched the LP12 in the same year and took exactly the opposite approach. The LP12 uses a suspended subchassis that decouples the platter from the plinth and isolates the whole replay assembly from external interference. Both approaches work. Both have fifty years of loyal users to prove it. Rega tends to produce music with snap and rhythmic grip. Linn at its best produces a deeper, more atmospheric presentation. Choosing between them is a matter of taste, not technical superiority on either side.
The same thinking that drives the turntable design carries through into the amplifiers. Short signal paths. Quality components rather than complex circuits. No tone controls. No feature bloat. The Brio has fewer inputs than most amplifiers at its price. That is a deliberate choice, not an oversight.
The turntable range
The current Planar series runs from the Planar 1 up to the Planar 10. On the used market you are more likely to encounter the older P series predecessors, which ran from the early 2000s until around 2016, and which are what most people mean when they talk about a used Rega.
The P1 and Planar 1 are the entry point. They do the job and at used prices they are accessible for someone getting started with vinyl. The tonearm is the limiting factor at this level and most people who buy a P1 find themselves wanting a P3 within a year or two. That is not a criticism so much as an honest description of where the range begins.
The P3 and Planar 3 are where Rega's reputation lives. The RB300 tonearm that debuted in 1983 was good enough that other turntable manufacturers paid Rega to use it on their own decks, which tells you something. A P3 in good condition with an RB300 is a genuinely serious piece of equipment and a used Planar 3 from the last ten years, fitted with the RB330 and the double brace plinth, is exceptional value at typical pre-owned prices.
The P5 and Planar 6 add better bearing tolerances and, importantly, the option to add an external power supply. A P5 fitted with the TT PSU or the later Neo PSU is noticeably more stable and quieter than the standard motor feed. If you find a used P5 with the PSU already in the box, buy it. The combination is worth considerably more than the parts suggest.
The P7, P9, Planar 8 and Planar 10 are proper high end equipment. Better platters, ceramic or aluminium bearing housings, and the top tier RB700, RB880 and RB3000 tonearms. Used P7s and P9s appear occasionally at prices that felt implausible when those decks were new. A well maintained P9 in particular is a turntable that competes with anything currently made at several times the asking price on the second-hand market.
The cartridges
Most turntable manufacturers do not make their own cartridges. Rega does, and the reason matters: the arm geometry, tonearm effective mass and cartridge compliance are all designed together so that a Rega cartridge on a Rega arm is a matched system, not a compromise.
The Carbon comes fitted to the Planar 1. Fine as a starting point and nothing more. The Elys 2 is a meaningful step up, with a better stylus profile that resolves more of what is in the groove, and it is the natural choice for a P3 or Planar 3. The Exact is Rega's best Moving Magnet design and genuinely excellent: a fine line stylus and refined body construction that on a Planar 3 or above produces a level of detail that competes comfortably with cartridges from other manufacturers at considerably higher prices.
The Apheta series takes things into Moving Coil territory. The Apheta 3 is current. MC cartridges need a phono stage with MC capability or a step-up transformer, but the reward in speed and transparency is real and obvious on a first listen. Used Apheta 2s come up occasionally and are well worth considering if the phono stage question is already sorted.
The amplifiers
Rega started making amplifiers in 1999. The same instincts that shaped the turntables apply here: short signal path, quality components, nothing added that does not earn its place.
The Brio is the entry level integrated and the one most people encounter first. Around 50 watts per channel, a decent MM phono stage built in, and a musical character that catches people off guard when they expect budget amplification to sound thin and uninvolving. It partners particularly well with Rega turntables, which is predictable given they were designed by the same people with the same objectives. Used Brios are easy to find and sensibly priced.
The Elex-R (2016 to 2021) is a well regarded step up with a higher current output stage and better power supply. More composed at volume and with a wider range of speakers. The Elicit-R (2012 to 2021) is the one to find if the budget stretches: a serious integrated amplifier that on the used market often costs less than a new Brio while performing at a noticeably higher level. It drives demanding speakers with real authority and the phono stage is genuinely good rather than an afterthought.
The Aethos is Rega's statement integrated, 125 watts per channel with a Class A input stage. Rarely appears used and commands strong prices when it does. If one comes up at a sensible figure, it is a significant amplifier.
Why a full Rega system works so well
A lot of listeners who start with a Rega turntable end up acquiring Rega amplification, Rega cartridges and a Rega phono stage. Not because they are loyal to a badge, but because each time they add something from Rega to a system that already has Rega in it, the improvement is bigger than the price difference would suggest.
A Rega Exact on a Rega Planar 3, into a Rega Fono and then a Rega Brio, into a pair of Neat standmounters, is a system that the Rega engineers tested together before any of it left the factory. The behaviour of that system was understood and refined in a way that a random assembly of components from different brands simply cannot replicate. That coherence is audible from the first record you play. It is also why matched Rega systems appear on the pre-owned market regularly, because their owners are usually upgrading within the Rega range rather than leaving it.
What to check when buying Rega used
On turntables, start with the tonearm bearings. The RB300 and its successors are good arms but bearings can develop play over time. Check for free horizontal and vertical movement with no stiffness or grinding. Inspect the belt and replace it if there is any doubt: a new Rega belt costs a few pounds and fitting it takes minutes. On older P3s with a glass platter, look for chips at the edge. Cosmetic rather than functional, but useful for negotiating the price.
On amplifiers, work through every input and listen carefully through the volume range. Crackling in the volume pot is common and usually fixable, but worth knowing about. The phono stage on Brio models can pick up a slight hum if the internal shielding has ever been disturbed. On Elicit-R models the remote control is Rega-proprietary and hard to replace secondhand, so check it works before you buy.
With any used cartridge, treat the stylus as unknown regardless of what the seller says. A replacement Elys 2 stylus from Rega is available and affordable. A used Exact can be retipped by a specialist. The Apheta stylus assembly is replaceable directly through Rega's service department.
Browse our current Rega stock at 2ndhandhifi.co.uk
For the dedicated enthusiast
A few things that matter with Rega equipment that do not come up in most buying guides.
Tonearm geometry and the three-point mounting. Rega uses a non-standard arm-to-spindle distance, typically 222mm or 237mm depending on the model, compared to the SME standard of 215.4mm used by most other manufacturers. Fitting a non Rega arm to a Rega deck, or a Rega arm to a non Rega deck, needs either a different armboard or a careful check that the geometry works out. The three-point mounting (one central screw and two alignment pins) means the tonearm overhang is effectively fixed at manufacture. Any adjustment has to come from moving the cartridge in the headshell slots rather than repositioning the arm itself, and those slots on Rega arms are shorter than on arms with a full sliding headshell. With a Rega cartridge on a Rega arm this is not a problem. With a third-party cartridge it needs attention.
Azimuth adjustment. The RB300 and most Rega arms after it do not offer a conventional azimuth adjustment. The headshell is fixed to the arm tube without any rotational movement. In practice this is fine with Rega cartridges because the manufacturing tolerances are tight enough that the alignment comes out of the factory correctly. If you fit a non Rega cartridge and find an azimuth error on measurement, thin shims between the cartridge body and the headshell can make small corrections. Third party Rega mount headshells with built in azimuth adjustment are available and worth having if you regularly swap cartridges.
The Neo PSU. The standard Rega motor runs directly off the mains at its supplied frequency. The Neo PSU (successor to the older TT PSU) replaces this with a regulated, crystal-locked supply that drives the motor at a precise and stable frequency independent of mains variation. The effect on platter speed stability is measurable and the effect on music is immediately audible: better pitch stability and a cleaner, quieter background. On a P3 or P5 it is regularly described as the most cost-effective upgrade available, more so than moving to a more expensive cartridge. Used Neo PSUs are worth picking up whenever they appear at a sensible price.
The Rega and Linn debate in technical terms. Rega's rigid construction passes vibration through the structure quickly so that stored energy cannot re enter the stylus later. Linn's suspended subchassis decouples the replay assembly from the supporting structure so that external vibration cannot reach the stylus in the first place. One prioritises rejection of internally generated resonance; the other prioritises rejection of external interference. On a solid concrete floor in a mechanically quiet room, the Rega approach has a timing and rhythmic precision that is hard to beat. In a building with footfall, pipes, and other vibration sources, the Linn approach has an advantage in background silence. Most rooms fall somewhere in between, which is why both designs have survived and been refined across five decades without either one winning the argument.