Exaggerated sales/unenthusiastic returns rega

[admin_exported]

Am having a happy evening listening to my lovely Rega brio-r. Unfortunately the 'r' is causing problems. The wonderfully cheap 'r' remote has plastic bubbles on it, it's horrible really. Can't work out whether I am an idiot for not working out how to pull the plastic off the remote or it's just cheap rubbish.

However 80s buying poor products feels, my main frustration is that Rega does not have a contact email address to deal with problems. Problems will always happen - they are putting huge faith in their dealer network to be really good. I had already decided nt to use Audio T again. I had chosen Rega, who were sold by Audio T. Audio T just happened to be local.

Audio T told me the amp would arrive in a week to 10 days. It took more than 4 times that time. Irrelevant and petty of me to care, of course. I will enjoy the amp - it is really good - for years - but I hate that they didn't keep me informed - I always had to call them to ask what was going on. Ultimately when I collected it I was told I was lucky - other orders were outstanding.

I have no wish to deal with a local shop that rightly or wrongly I feel misled me - or as the world changed failed to inform me.

So what is the result? I have a remote that ruins my aesthetic pleasure and have thrown the possibility of he rega speakers and dac out of the window - whereas listening now - normally I would be so so tempted.

If Rega had an email address and a competent person to respond they could probably re-engage me, and I would feel warm and happy, and upgrade. It's a shame it feels like they outsource customer service. But do but the Brio-r it is great!

 

[Anonymous]

Mmm. I always say to myself "never judge anyone on typos or grammar" . I know which side to butter bread - 'the top'.

 

[John Duncan]

I found this link that has a couple of numbers on it:

www.192.com/atoz/business/southend-on-sea-ss2/sound-recording-apparatus-and-equipment/rega-research/a6783b3747a18bedb9296d8f1dccb287e57ef029/ml/

 

[Sizzers]

The remote does what it does.

Changes input, up/down volume, and mute. I would have thought you would have been to engrossed enjoying the music rather than staring at the aesthetics or otherwise of your remote.

 

[Anonymous]

Unpublished by mods-duplicate post

John, thank you. I think part of the issue is that those numbers arent obviously on their website. If you take customer service seriously it wouldn't only be available through a search engine, and there would be an actively promoted email address as well as a phone number.

Sizzers, fair advice - but I absolutely disagree - if I may! How products look, feel, and last, is important to me. For £480 I expect the product to at least be durable! The bubbles on the remote undermine confidence in the rest of the product. Is this indicative of the general quality of the product? I hope not, but can't be sure. I do maintain it sounds great (Shins at the moment), but wold like to sort my minor problem direct with Rega.

[Unpublished by Mods, Duplicate] P

 

[Anonymous]

John, thank you. I think part of the issue is that those numbers arent obviously on their website. If you take customer service seriously it wouldn't only be available through a search engine, and there would be an actively promoted email address as well as a phone number.

Sizzers, fair advice - but I absolutely disagree - if I may! How products look, feel, and last, is important to me. For £480 I expect the product to at least be durable! The bubbles on the remote undermine confidence in the rest of the product. Is this indicative of the general quality of the product? I hope not, but can't be sure. I do maintain it sounds great (Shins at the moment), but wold like to sort my minor problem direct with Rega.

 

[Anonymous]

John, thank you. I think part of the issue is that those numbers arent obviously on their website. If you take customer service seriously it wouldn't only be available through a search engine, and there would be an actively promoted email address as well as a phone number.

Sizzers, fair advice - but I absolutely disagree - if I may! How products look, feel, and last, is important to me. For £480 I expect the product to at least be durable! The bubbles on the remote undermine confidence in the rest of the product. Is this indicative of the general quality of the product? I hope not, but can't be sure. I do maintain it sounds great (Shins at the moment), but wold like to sort my minor problem direct with Rega.

 

[Anonymous]

John, thank you. I think part of the issue is that those numbers arent obviously on their website. If you take customer service seriously it wouldn't only be available through a search engine, and there would be an actively promoted email address as well as a phone number.

Sizzers, fair advice - but I absolutely disagree - if I may! How products look, feel, and last, is important to me. For £480 I expect the product to at least be durable! The bubbles on the remote undermine confidence in the rest of the product. Is this indicative of the general quality of the product? I hope not, but can't be sure. I do maintain it sounds great (Shins at the moment), but wold like to sort my minor problem direct with Rega.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, the remote does have a plastic cover on it, just peel off from the corner, bit fiddly but it is intended to come off.

I also purchased from Audio-T (Brighton) and had the same issue with time to fulfil my order but they were very good at keeping me up to speed and were not as far out on timescales as you experienced. I bought a Brio-R, Rega DAC and Rega RS3s - the Amp and DAC took 2 weeks and the speakers about 3 to 4. They lent me their demo RS3s while I waited for mine which I thought was very reasonable.

Reason for delays probably does lie with REGA not Audio T in fairness to them, and I am sure they will be more careful about indicated timescales in future.

In fairness to REGA the REGA combination of amp, DAC and RS3s reviewed so well in January's What Hi-Fi I am not at all suprised by the high demand and no doubt REGA were doing their best to meet it.

I am very happy with the combination and it was well worth a wait, I will also use Audio T regularly in the future.

Hope you enjoy as much as I am.

 

[chebby]

Are you sure it's not bubbles under the protective film?

In my experience most new remotes have protective film on them.

[Edit] Sorry Steve. Typing as you posted.

 

[Anonymous]

Chebby, while you're on just wanted to say thanks very much for pointing me in the direction of that What Hi Fi article and for your input into my Starting from Scratch with £2k thread when I joined (thanks very much to everyone else who did so too).

I had made up my mind before you highlighted the review but that cemented it for me and gives me sufficient piece of mind that the enjoyment I am getting from my set up is as much as I want for now and that I have gone with a decent set of components (despite the plethora of alternatives out there which I tried my best to properly consider and audition until my impatience got the better of me).

Sorry to stray off-topic, thanks again all.

 

[Sizzers]

Sizzers, fair advice - but I absolutely disagree - if I may! How products look, feel, and last, is important to me. For £480 I expect the product to at least be durable! The bubbles on the remote undermine confidence in the rest of the product. Is this indicative of the general quality of the product? I hope not, but can't be sure. I do maintain it sounds great (Shins at the moment), but wold like to sort my minor problem direct with Rega.

There was no offence intended, but the cheap plastic fascia and the cheap rear plastic panel are even worse for me.

The rear panel moves in and out when you change connections etc which does worry me a bit, but as you know the rest is rock solid.

 

[Anonymous]

Steve D, Chebby

Very happy to be the idiot. Your posts gave me the confidence to confidence to dig my nail in to the cover and pull it.

Quite like the remote control now! Thank you

(am still maintaining my audio t moans, could've kept me better informed on progress. Overall it would help my upgraditis if no one suggests that the Rs1 or rs3 have any value next to an early quad 11L, and certainly that the rega dac has any value at all!) cheers.

Thanks to all that replied.

 

[Anonymous]

Sizzers - no offence taken or intended! There is an interesting article somewhere about the balance between buying from 'small' companies and their approach to the quality/cost issue and the 'big' companies and their approach,

(anyway now people have sorted my problem. The music is much better! (joke - but it is nice the remote isn't annoying me!!!))

 

[Anonymous]

No worries, took me a while before I ripped my plastic casing off.

Sorry about the DAC and speakers mentions, only commented on these because you seemed to indicate you might be wanting to go down that route but were unsure about Rega's product quality. On quality front no issues from my point of view at all, as to need vs what you have I doubt there is one and I've seen very positive comments about those Quad speakers on this forum if my memory serves me well.

Happy listening.

 

[Anonymous]

SteveD

I was really happy with the advice and the speaker and dac suggestions. I am so nearly there, but also dont need them! The normal upgrade stuff - how to justify!

All good fun

Thanks

Mark

 

[moon]

It does surprise me that a £500 amp has a wobbly plastic back panel. I have been researching Cd players, and the Rega Apollo R is on my list, but if this type of build quality is representative of the range then It might get dropped which would be a shame because the styling is wonderful.

It can be done at this price point. The Cambridge gear is rock solid.

 

[jerry klinger]

It does surprise me that a £500 amp has a wobbly plastic back panel. I have been researching Cd players, and the Rega Apollo R is on my list, but if this type of build quality is representative of the range then It might get dropped which would be a shame because the styling is wonderful.

It can be done at this price point. The Cambridge gear is rock solid.

I doubt if the Cambridge amp sounds as good as the Brio-R, at least judging by my experience of the Brio-R and the WHF review of the Cambridge.

Moon, you're concerned about build quality of the Rega. Don't be - the amp is superbly built and in the unlikely event of a failure Rega will rectify it. As for the cosmetics - I've not got a problem with the back panel though the phono sockets are certainly nicely tight.

Don't base your decisions on a thread dominated by one person's failure to realise that the remote had a plastic peelable cover!

 

[moon]

It does surprise me that a £500 amp has a wobbly plastic back panel. I have been researching Cd players, and the Rega Apollo R is on my list, but if this type of build quality is representative of the range then It might get dropped which would be a shame because the styling is wonderful.

It can be done at this price point. The Cambridge gear is rock solid.

I doubt if the Cambridge amp sounds as good as the Brio-R, at least judging by my experience of the Brio-R and the WHF review of the Cambridge.

Moon, you're concerned about build quality of the Rega. Don't be - the amp is superbly built and in the unlikely event of a failure Rega will rectify it. As for the cosmetics - I've not got a problem with the back panel though the phono sockets are certainly nicely tight.

Don't base your decisions on a thread dominated by one person's failure to realise that the remote had a plastic peelable cover!

Jerry, dont worry I always make informed decisions based on me having had hands on. Any way it was the Rega Apollo r cd player I had on my list, not the amp.

And further, I bet you the Cambridge sounds everybit as good as the Brio R.

love and peace

Moon

 

[Anonymous]

I agree, I was surprised Sizzers was disappointed in the build quality of the Brio-R in any way. I haven't felt the same myself.

 

[respe]

the only way to find out if the Rega and Cambridge sound as good as each other is to listen to them. Owning both brands I would be surprised if they do. The one you prefer is as always down to choice.

As to the customer service thing, Rega have always prefered to work through the supplying dealer. If you need to go direct, then the phone number is easy enough to find, and whenever I had contacted them they have been more than helpful.

It is possible that at the moment Rega a working hard to keep up with demand. They have a strong product range, from the budget gear, right through to isis/osiris level. As they manufacture in the UK, keeping much needed employment here, maybe we should appauld that succes rather than complain that some of the best sound per pound kit takes a couple of weeks to reach the customer.

 

[Sospri]

the only way to find out if the Rega and Cambridge sound as good as each other is to listen to them. Owning both brands I would be surprised if they do. The one you prefer is as always down to choice.

As to the customer service thing, Rega have always prefered to work through the supplying dealer. If you need to go direct, then the phone number is easy enough to find, and whenever I had contacted them they have been more than helpful.

It is possible that at the moment Rega a working hard to keep up with demand. They have a strong product range, from the budget gear, right through to isis/osiris level. As they manufacture in the UK, keeping much needed employment here, maybe we should appauld that succes rather than complain that some of the best sound per pound kit takes a couple of weeks to reach the customer.

Agreed.......

 

[Sizzers]

I agree, I was surprised Sizzers was disappointed in the build quality of the Brio-R in any way. I haven't felt the same myself.

I'm not as such disappointed, but the back panel does move in and out a bit when reconnecting the mains lead or a pair of QED IC's I use which are always a tight fit regardless.

Other people have noted this elsewhere, and for one reason or another I've been doing a lot of repeated swapping around lately and it is a little disconcerting. The front panel is fine apart from the garish red lit "Rega" logo which I have covered with black insulation tape, otherwise no complaints at all.

 

[Sizzers]

the only way to find out if the Rega and Cambridge sound as good as each other is to listen to them. Owning both brands I would be surprised if they do. The one you prefer is as always down to choice.

As to the customer service thing, Rega have always prefered to work through the supplying dealer. If you need to go direct, then the phone number is easy enough to find, and whenever I had contacted them they have been more than helpful.

It is possible that at the moment Rega a working hard to keep up with demand. They have a strong product range, from the budget gear, right through to isis/osiris level. As they manufacture in the UK, keeping much needed employment here, maybe we should appauld that succes rather than complain that some of the best sound per pound kit takes a couple of weeks to reach the customer.

Agreed.......

I have reported my experience with Rega elsewhere, but briefly....

I bought a Rega Brio-R amp last month which gave a fairly loud buzzing through my speakers. I contacted Rega by email (Paul D replied at 9PM that evening!), and explained the problem and exactly what I had done to make sure it wasn't anything connected to either my connections or electrical supply (I won't bore you with those details), and you know what? They accepted there was a problem and what I had done to resolve it, and sent out a replacement direct to the dealer having tested it before[/b] despatch to make sure that the new amp amp didn't have the same problem. Now that's[/b] what I call service

 

[SteveR750]

There is no excuse for not having a half decent remote at this price break, and I don't accept it's spending the cash on the bits that matter. Agreedn it doesnt afect the sonic performance, but it does for many people affect their perception and enjoyment of the product - I never used the dull plastic Cyrus remote in favour of the solid, attractive Roksan remote. Small details, but small details often matter. Otherwise why bother trying to make anything "good"