Rega Planar 3 Upgrade(?) path

J!m

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#21
There's an Empire at the hi fi museum I have listened to a few times (with Empire cartridge too).

Quite nice!

I know the idler wheel tables are supossed to be the end-all, be-all, but if I was throwing appearances to the wind, I'd probably have an old floor mounted broadcast transcription table with a 12+ inch arm on it.

Lest we forget: it must pass the WAF test...
 

Gepetto

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#22
There's an Empire at the hi fi museum I have listened to a few times (with Empire cartridge too).

Quite nice!

I know the idler wheel tables are supossed to be the end-all, be-all, but if I was throwing appearances to the wind, I'd probably have an old floor mounted broadcast transcription table with a 12+ inch arm on it.

Lest we forget: it must pass the WAF test...
No appreciation at all for idler wheel tables. The only Rek I would ever look to own are the belt driven variety with the 14# platters.
 

J!m

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#23
Well, Gus, from Tangospinner, is hooking a brother up. I’ll share details after the deal is done, but this boring Planar 3 is going to suddenly be bitchin’.

Looking good and sounding good. Getting excited about this project!
 

J!m

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#25
Yeah, vinyl flow has been slow for most of the summer. I get the best stuff from the Hi Fi museum. Good records at fair prices.

I want to listen to them, not create an investment portfolio. So I have trouble with records over $25. New or used. I understand some are more “collectible” but that’s not my game. I’ve passed in a few I wanted either due to price or condition. They had a Hendrix import I wanted bad but it had an evil looking scratch across most of one side. I had to let it go.
 

8991XJ

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#26
With the recent increases year after year in new record sales, the aging pressing equipment, the increase in cost of a barrel of oil (providing the polyvinyl chloride for the record) and the destruction of the lacquer master manufacturing plant last year records are going to continue to go up in price. Just a storm of things putting upward pressure on the prices. And everyone wants the heavy 180 gram or more releases, not the regular ones. Buy now while they are cheap.
 

J!m

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#28
I wanted to update you guys on where the project stands.

This is the new plinth I ordered. I have no idea if I will receive this *exact* one, or simply one veneered with the same species. We'll find out soon I guess. I think it looks nice. Modern, yet "classic" at the same time.
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The base table is a black on black (logo decal/printing on the plinth is black on the black melamine laminate) Planar 3 with the smoked dust cover. (might need to polish that for it's new home..)

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(image stolen from the web. I don't have my original papers or that cartridge, but it is for illustration porpoises only.)

To this, we add the following TangoSpinner bits:

ZIRCONIA HI-LUBE SUBPLATTER: Metal Subplatter with Silicone Decoupling Stages and Vesconite Hi-Lube terminal ending (normally supplied with a Zirconia bearing ball and a fancy silicone belt). Basically, it has a hi-tech plastic termination on the end of the stub. I don't yet know how this compares to the hi-tech plastic bearing balls I sourced, but should essentially do the same thing- isolate the spindle from any bearing noise, and with my new bearing, there isn't any noise to begin with. Maybe it will absorb noise from elsewhere... Gus provided this "flagship" subplatter for the price of the BOTL model I had spec'd out.

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Brass dual-belt pulley (fixed 33.33 RPM operation). He offered the brass for the price of the aluminum, so, why not? I don't personally see any operational benefit from the brass over aluminum in this location, but it certainly won't hurt performance. They use an internal quad-ring (an o-ring with a four-lobe cross section, if you're not familiar) and no set screw. No off center setting from the one sided push and no imbalance from the screw (but at that radius, it would be insignificant in the grand scheme). You can always go with an aluminum or brass set screw on your set-screw pulley if you like, to match density of your current set-screw pulley.

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The major "bling" bit will be the Libertango Platter (black with polished/brushed aluminum perimeter ring)

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This is what it would look like on the original plinth. This platter operates without any platter mat- record sits directly onto the Delrin. Some sell Delrin platter mats to achieve the same coupling- hopefully it's the right decision... (but I will be using the Michell VTA nut, if I choose to add a mat on there) And the aluminum perimiter increase inertia, which (should) reduce W&F significantly.

And last, but hopefully not least, nice adjustable feet. Currently I use old, obsolete business cards to shim the stock Rega feet and level the plinth. Welcome to the 20th century!

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The nylon (black) bit gets screwed to the plinth, in the original locations (using original hardware). Then the aluminum cone threads onto the stub. Plenty of height adjustment. Tips are either Silicone (standard) or Urethane (upgrade?) Gus provided the Urethane version for the Silicone price.

That's cool, but, Gus also covered FedEx/DHL shipping! Basically, I received a discount from $545 to $420

The only remaining upgrade, which I may farm out, is to rewire the arm. If I do that, I will also put output jacks on the table, single-ended as well as balanced. I think there is a lot of value in running the line from the cartridge to the phono preamp as a balanced line, to take advantage of the noise rejection in this very low-level signal. (hey, that's why microphones are balanced!) I'll probably use either mini XLR jacks (as used on headphones these days), or Lemo B-series.

Once this is together, I will re-evaluate my drive belt situation. Currently I use the "type 2" belt, from my belt test kit. It has very stable speed- the most stable of the six materials I offer in the kit. That may change, going to two belts and all this other stuff being changed. It will be a completely different table. I hope it doesn't suck!

Stay tuned! I have all the parts for completing my first DAC, so I'm going to keep busy with that, while I wait on these parts and the SX-880 parts.
 

J!m

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#34
Three days from Buenos Aires... But you can't get a cassette tape to Canada in under two weeks.

My TangoSpinner box arrived today! I'll crack it open later. I have the unsuspecting victim in my car, so I'll start tearing it all apart tonight probably. (Maybe I'll wait until the Plinth arrives).
 

J!m

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#35
Got busy with this today. New plinth has not arrived yet but I checkthe TS box out and tore down the Planar 3 getting ready.
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Black on black. Cool version I think.

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parts…

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Clean dust cover still needs some polish but not bad looking overall.

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highly advanced motor control circuit…

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highly advanced motor suspension. Bend the ears down and hold a plate on with an o-ring. That’s a grand easily.

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hopefully offset some expense selling this as a few other bits off…

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this is the stuff I got for 50 cents a can at Home Depot on clearance. Worked great on the dust cover!

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underside. It seems I put sorbathane feet on this, but I don’t remember doing it…
 
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J!m

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#38
Got an "update" today...

The plinth is JUST LEAVING Moldova today! (I ordered it on Christmas) So, FYI: it seems they make them to order once you pay for it, in case you are on a schedule.

Hopefully it comes as fast from there as my Tango Spinner parts did from Buenos Aires.

Speaking of Tango Spinner, I am contemplating taking the aluminum disc off the Delrin platter and chucking it up in the big lathe across the street, so I can mirror polish the exposed edge. Either that, or just polish the chamfer, and "brush" the OD wall... Not sure, but I feel it needs some refinement, to be on a table I'm assembling.

Also considering some "cheeks" for the plinth. Historically, the unit is metal (or metal-looking) with wood cheeks, like the Sony ES series, older Kenwood stuff etc. I thought a pair of aluminum cheeks might be a cool look and a nod to the past with a modern flair. Possibly black anodized with polished chamfers. I might be able to get bar stock pre-anodized and then I can just mill the chamfer in and polish it. Let's see what I feel like...
 

derek92994

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#39
Is it possible to upgrade to an external power supply/speed control box? I mention this because someone I knew via youtube upgraded the PSU on his Rega RP6. Is the drive motor AC or DC?
 

J!m

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#40
The original Motor is an AC synch Airpax that runs directly off 110. It is a 50hz motor which they compensate for with pulley diameter.

The motor control board is extremely simple- I am wondering if the resistor could be replaced with with a smaller one and a pot in series, to allow speed adjustment…

4E217B7E-9C10-4A4F-8A23-D7EA5B26DEEA.jpeg
White wires on the right are the on-off switch. Black is AC coming in (no fuse), small wires go to the motor.

They (Rega) sell an expensive 24VDC motor upgrade with an external speed box so speed can be changed on the fly, rather than moving a belt to a larger pulley.

I am going to a twin 33 pulley (two drive belts) so it will only run 33 unless I do something radical.
 
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