Get to Know the Price-to-Performance Champ Deemed 'The Best Value on the Market': Rega Planar 3 Turntable Package Features RB330 Tonearm, Nd5 MM Phono Cartridge, and Beautiful British Build Quality

Deemed "the best value on the market" by What Hi-Fi? and sold here with a pre-fitted Nd5 moving-magnet phono cartridge (read more below), the Rega Planar 3 turntable is charged with replacing one of the most iconic models, the five-time Product of the Year Award-winning RP3, in high-end history. Completely redesigned and offering tremendous enhancements in the fields of ergonomics, usability, and sonics, the stylish Planar 3 (P3) is a price-to-performance breakthrough that delivers insightful playback marked by excellent cohesion, sumptuous tonal balance, accurate pacing, addictive resolution, and — perhaps most importantly — fun.

Carrying over just two components (motor and dustcover) from its revered predecessor, the wonderfully built P3 features a new tonearm, new plinth, new bracing, new main bearing, new platter, new subplatter, new feet, and a new motor cover. While "new" means little unless the connotation comes with improvements, in the case of P3, everything is enhanced to allow the music on your vinyl LPs to flourish with more detail, clarity, nuance, depth, dimensionality, and liveliness. No wonder it took Rega and chief designer Roy Gandy two years before the engineering team was fully satisfied with the results.

A primary key to P3's incredible sound resides with the RB330 tonearm. A bias assembly with a stuffer vertical housing bearing, integrated arm clip, and refined spring housing contribute to greater stability, near-friction-free movement, and advanced information retrieval. In addition, RB330 touts a low-capacitance phono cable with Neutrik plugs and a 100g mild steel balance weight for optimal precision.

P3 also sports a stiffer, more attractive-looking glossy plinth as well as a thicker metal-skin phenolic top brace complimented by a 3mm phenolic bottom brace. Its bearing housing includes a redesigned brass main hub central bearing with ameliorated fit and construction to reduce internal stress. P3's subplatter provides boosts in accuracy and stiffness, while the platter's float-glass Optiwhite-polished 12mm rim lends sought-after elegance and furthered fidelity. Rega also re-tailored the feet for reduced vibration transfer and introduced integrated cooling into the motor cover tray.

With a pre-installed Rega Nd5 MM phono cartridge, the P3 seriously has — and does — it all for a price that will makes you (and your records) spin with delight.

"This remains the best value turntable on the market."
—What Hi-Fi?, 2020 Best Turntable €500-€750 Award

"For me, the best record-playing system is the one that most vigorously directs my attention to the humans behind the music... Rega's new Planar 3 is exceptional at doing just that."
—Herb Reichert, Stereophile, Class C Recommended Component

"[The] Planar 3 sounds absolutely lovely, and the constant evolution that Roy Gandy and his team have brought to bear on this classic is truly admirable."
—TONEAudio, Exceptional Value Award

Rega Nd5 MM Phono Cartridge
Anchored by an aluminum cantilever and perfect elliptical nude diamond stylus profile, Nd5 offers stunning tracking ability, fantastic detail retrieval, and on-point accuracy that leads to enlightening imaging. Hand-made by Rega technicians and devised over the course of a decade, it also features newly devised generator geometry for outstanding channel balance and an optimized pole gap for superb linearity and cross-talk characteristics. The sonic upshot: Extremely wide soundstaging and involving pacing.

Equipped with a three-point mounting system for easy installation, Nd5 boasts miniaturized parallel coils that are wound in-house with 38-micron wire and only 1275 turns. This approach allows Nd5 to excel when it comes to the areas of high-frequency response and low-noise operation. To give Nd5 lightweight and rigid characteristics — and ensure it does not add stress on tonearms — Rega devised a zero-tolerance, injection-molded, glass-filled polyphenylene sulfide body (PPS) inspired by the company’s MC models.

Highlights

• What Hi-Fi? Product of the year 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
• RB330 precision tonearm
• Rega Nd5 moving magnet phono cartridge factory fitted
• Double brace technology
• 24 V low noise, low vibration motor
• 12 mm float glass opti-white polished platter
• Supplied with clear dust cover as standard.
• Compatible with Rega Neo turntable power supply (sold separately)
• Three high gloss plinth options and light oak effect (New for 2024)
• Advanced EBLT drive belt fitted as standard from March 2021

• Tonearm: Hand assembled precision RB330 tonearm
• Motor: 24 V low noise motor
• Platter": 12 mm glass polished edge
• Connectivity: RCA / Phono
• Power (additional): Mini DIN for connection to Neo PSU (optional upgrade)
• Dimensions (lid closed) (W x H x D): 447 x 117 x 360 mm
• Weight: 6.0 kg