REGA NAIA LISTENING EVENT - 2ND TO 4TH NOVEMBER

Sitting here typing this I should be getting really excited about our upcoming Rega Listening event where we will be showcasing the eagerly awaited Rega Naia Turntable, but I have some reservations… Serious reservations. Allow me to elaborate…

Going back to the mid ‘80s when I bought my first turntable - the famous Dual CS505/3 (bought from this very establishment) the slippery slope of Hi-Fi ownership had started. A few short years later I started working for Audio Excellence, as it was then, and quickly came to realise that I was that “kid in a candy store”.

Over the years the upgrading and playing around with my system led me down the path of owning lots of different amplifiers and speakers from Musical Fidelity, Trio, Albarry, Linn, Naim, Dynaudio, Spendor… the list goes on. But after a short ownership of a Pink Triangle LPT turntable I made the change to owning my first Linn LP12. Upgrades came over time including the Lingo, Ekos tonearm and then the Naim Aro tonearm, which I think was the star of the show when it came to LP12 mods - I absolutely loved it!

Fast forward several years and we were starting to sell a lot more of the higher end Rega turntables, which were catching my ear so to speak, in particular the Rega Planar 10 when it was released. Looking back this was the first turntable that made me question if I would one day change from the LP12. Towards the end of 2019 the Planar 10 arrived with us but of course the pandemic put the brakes on things for quite a while. Later in 2020 when we had the chance to demo the new Planar 8 and 10 I was getting quite taken with them the more and more I heard them, so… I decided to take the Planar 8 with Ania Pro cartridge home to try out. It didn’t take long for me to decide I wanted one, about 20 minutes I guess. I lived with it for a few days before bringing it back to the shop and plugging my LP12 back in. Playing the Linn afterwards I really did miss the Rega, whilst the Linn was everything you would expect it to be - musical, engaging and so on, it was just to me the Rega had that something extra that the Linn didn’t give in my system - a bit more Bruce Forsyth compared to Jeremy Paxman would be one way of describing it.

Not to ramble on… The plunge was taken and I was very happy with my new Rega Planar 8 with Ania Pro cartridge and Aria Phono stage, until… I started doing more demos with the Planar 10 - blimey it’s good! Somehow I resisted the temptation to take it home for quite a while, but in a moment of weakness I took our demo model home for the weekend and (as the children say) OMG!! It was simple - I had to have one. Very shortly after this I was booked for a demo of the P10 with one of our old standing customers, and after telling him how much I enjoyed it at home he asked “how come you haven’t got one then good boy - cos I’m gonna ‘ave one” in his very deepest Welsh Valley accent. I ordered mine at the same time I ordered his. Once it had arrived and was all run in I was over the moon. It was getting used far more than I had used the Linn, finding myself playing records for hours on end, and re-discovering parts of my older collection. I found myself buying a lot more records as well as I was enjoying it so much.

I even started having themed evenings, for example: a Facebook post reminded me it was the anniversary of the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan so that evening it would be all SRV. Record Store days have always been an expensive day for me as those of you that follow our social media will know. After a new turntable and many many LPs my wallet was getting a hammering!

But, my dilemma doesn’t stop there. I was very kindly offered a loan of the Aphelion cartridge, which I reluctantly accepted given my previous. It sat at home for weeks before I plucked the courage up to fit it to my Planar 10. As you can guess, it was amazing. I only played a few albums before I returned to my Apheta 3 as I really didn’t want to be hankering after this amazing cartridge as well.

Just when you think you’re all done, Rob (our Rega representative) drops the bombshell: “we’ve got something coming out that you’re really going to like, so hang fire with the Aphelion but I can’t tell you any more at this stage”. It wasn’t long before we were at the Bristol Hi-Fi show and I made a beeline to the Rega room before the show opened in the morning, there to greet me at the door was Rob who just pointed around the corner with a grin on his face… and there it was: the test model of the Naia in a full perpex case so nobody could even touch it. This was the only working model that all test data was being taken from. In a way I was glad it was not playing as I resigned myself to the fact that what you don’t hear you don’t want.

The Rega Naia on display at the bristol hi-fi show 2023

“The Rega Naia turntable is the result of years of painstaking development which was used to create the now famous ‘Naiad’ test bed turntable. The Naia takes the best of this development and technology and transfers it into a production ready version without compromise. The Naia is packed with ground-breaking features, materials and technology developed by Rega over many years to reach new levels of vinyl replay.”

— Rega Press Release

And now I find myself reluctantly excited to hear the Naia for the very first time along with you on November 2nd, when we will have the Naia in-store for a special weekend. Kicking things off with a listening event with Rob Noble of Rega, who will be with us to tell all about the evolution of the Naia, you will also have the chance to have your own private listening session on the Friday and Saturday. This means that I will have to listen to it even more with you. So please do come along on the Thursday to meet Rob and learn all about what I’m sure is going to be one very special turntable, but do be warned that if you do book a listen on the Friday or Saturday then don’t expect me to stay in the room with you all the time, I may take a very long time to make a cuppa, or have to write an email veeeery slowly to avoid the… “temptation”. And please don’t ask me when I’m going to get one… Please…

In all seriousness though, it’s not that often that we get so excited about a new product, and hope that you will be able to come along and be one of the very first people to hear this new bench mark from Rega.

If you would like to attend the event on Thursday, Rob will be with us from 3pm until 8pm. And if you would like to book an appointment for a 45 minute listening session on either the Friday or Saturday, then please either call us - 01792474608 or email us - swansea@audio-t.co.uk to book. We look forward to seeing you.

Thanks for reading

Nic – Audio T Swansea

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