Cover
Rega haven’t left the P8 completely without protection from dust, a new acrylic cover is provided to simply lift off to play a record.
Options
The Rega Planar 8 is available in four package versions. You can buy the deck without cartridge for £1699, but it can be equipped with the Exact moving magnet (+£210), Ania moving coil (£ 2199.00 inclusive) or with the Apheta 2 MC ( £ 2,439.00 inclusive) that we have on test here. The arm and table are capable of realising the benefits of a range or other high quality cartridges, provided, as always, the phono amplifier stage is of sufficient quality.
Set Up
Set-up is easy. In the case of the Rega cartridges, the cartridge is pre-mounted and its alignment is guaranteed via Rega’s own three-point mounting system. All the user has to do is remove the packaging protecting the main bearing and arm, fit the tracking weight and set bias. The Apheta 2 tracks between 1.75 and 2 grams. Rega recommend 1.75 grams as a starting point.
Sound
The initial impression is that the Planar 8 it delivers a high level of level of clarity, depth and insight. The P8 and Apheta combination copes well with the music’s dynamics and changes in momentum. The presentation is insightful and organised with a high degree of composure. The Planar 8 always sounds in control no matter how complex the music becomes. Yet, that sense of control doesn’t water down the drive and excitement of the recording, (Groove Armada – Song 4 Mutya)
It is tonally well balanced. It’s smooth when required but still has enough bite when the music demands it. It has real solid authority and weight; the dynamics are powerful and unflustered. This is combined with stable and focused stereo imaging, rendering an expansive and finessed soundstage and locks instruments in place even when the production becomes dense. Image scale is good– the sound extending well beyond the edges of our reference Dynaudio Special 40’s.
While delivering each musical strand and intonation with clarity, it manages to bring everything together to produce a cohesive, enjoyable and tonally correct whole. Simply communicating the emotion in the music and performance is what the Rega does so well. One gets drawn in to listen to the music and the performance rather than the equipment
It has a glorious articulation with bass instruments that conveys punch, power and texture beautifully (Japan, Tin Drum – Talking Drum & Ghosts). The lows don’t over-dominate, but they do give a solid and deep underpinning for the rest of the frequency range to do its stuff. An articulate mid-range ensures that distinctive vocals come through with the intensity and insight they need. Highs are dynamic, balanced and not over explicit
The Rega P8 has a good sense of timing It brings a tonal neutrality and shape to music, with dynamic expressiveness, especially with the micro-dynamics that gives music a sense of “reality and performance. Low-level detail resolution is also outstanding. This turntable is pitch stable and quiet allowing through a wide dynamic range and cohesiveness, with little extraneous noise to affect your perception and allow insight into the performance (Ry Cooder – Bop Till You Drop).
The Rega Apheta 2 moving coil cartridge when connected to the Planar 8 provides an agile and responsive combination to help you experience vinyl as a high-performance format. Together they will play anything you throw at it and make sense of it all, whatever the complexity and dynamics of the music.
