Rega Planar 3 upgrades or move on

[Chris Munden]

Hi guys, I'm new here but I would like to ask for some advice, I have a very old Rega Planar 3 with the straight RB300 arm and Ortofon 2MRed, I recently did the Rega motor mount mod with sticky pads, a new ally pulley and a new little green belter drive belt. I cleaned out the main bearing fitted a new ball bearing (free at Halfords) and used the Rega recommended oil. There is no play or wear on the bearing and it runs silent. However. since fitting the motor drectly to the plinth via the sticky foam pads, I can detect slight motor rumble in the back ground on quiet passages of music at medium volume. This never happened when the motor was suspended on the rubber band. I feel reluctant to throw more money at this deck with no real gurantee the motor noise will go, so any suggestions, a move side ways to another brand or up? Thanks in advance

Pete

 

[Al ears]

Hi guys, I'm new here but I would like to ask for some advice, I have a very old Rega Planar 3 with the straight RB300 arm and Ortofon 2MRed, I recently did the Rega motor mount mod with sticky pads, a new ally pulley and a new little green belter drive belt. I cleaned out the main bearing fitted a new ball bearing (free at Halfords) and used the Rega recommended oil. There is no play or wear on the bearing and it runs silent. However. since fitting the motor drectly to the plinth via the sticky foam pads, I can detect slight motor rumble in the back ground on quiet passages of music at medium volume. This never happened when the motor was suspended on the rubber band. I feel reluctant to throw more money at this deck with no real gurantee the motor noise will go, so any suggestions, a move side ways to another brand or up? Thanks in advance

Pete

Whilst your mods may not have had the desired improvements you are still going to have to pay a whole lot more to buy a better new turntable. My suggestion would be to persevere. Get that ball bearing out and replace it with a genuine part or third-party ruby or the like. The sticky pads were never a good idea (I had to replace my rubber-belted motor assembly years ago). I would suggest using thin rubber washers and small bolts or replacing the actual foam pads with similar sticky thin rubber pads if you can find them. Just have a play, the benefits can be large for very little outlay.

The Planar 3 / RB300 is a classic combo and the best improvement you could make, in my opinion, is to spend your money on a much better cartridge.

 

[Freddy58]

Hi guys, I'm new here but I would like to ask for some advice, I have a very old Rega Planar 3 with the straight RB300 arm and Ortofon 2MRed, I recently did the Rega motor mount mod with sticky pads, a new ally pulley and a new little green belter drive belt. I cleaned out the main bearing fitted a new ball bearing (free at Halfords) and used the Rega recommended oil. There is no play or wear on the bearing and it runs silent. However. since fitting the motor drectly to the plinth via the sticky foam pads, I can detect slight motor rumble in the back ground on quiet passages of music at medium volume. This never happened when the motor was suspended on the rubber band. I feel reluctant to throw more money at this deck with no real gurantee the motor noise will go, so any suggestions, a move side ways to another brand or up? Thanks in advance

Pete

Whilst your mods may not have had the desired improvements you are still going to have to pay a whole lot more to buy a better new turntable. My suggestion would be to persevere. Get that ball bearing out and replace it with a genuine part or third-party ruby or the like. The sticky pads were never a good idea (I had to replace my rubber-belted motor assembly years ago). I would suggest using thin rubber washers and small bolts or replacing the actual foam pads with similar sticky thin rubber pads if you can find them. Just have a play, the benefits can be large for very little outlay.

The Planar 3 / RB300 is a classic combo and the best improvement you could make, in my opinion, is to spend your money on a much better cartridge.

That makes for good reading. I too have an old Rega Planar 3/RB300 which was fitted last year with a Goldring 1042. To me, it sounds pretty good

 

[Chris Munden]

Thanks guys, sounds like good advice, I guess the ideal but expensive option would be to isolate the motor completely from the plinth. Freddy, do you think there may be some bearing rumble that the arm is picking up, some people are saying the very heavy glass platter is one of the causes, would a lighter acrilyc platter help to remove the bearing rumble, and does the ceramic or Ruby balls really help quiet things down. Several Hi Fi dealers are recommending the glass platter be removed for an acrilyc one, DECO Audio for one and Edwards Hi Fi turntables swear by them.

Chris M

 

[Freddy58]

Thanks guys, sounds like good advice, I guess the ideal but expensive option would be to isolate the motor completely from the plinth. Freddy, do you think there may be some bearing rumble that the arm is picking up, some people are saying the very heavy glass platter is one of the causes, would a lighter acrilyc platter help to remove the bearing rumble, and does the ceramic or Ruby balls really help quiet things down. Several Hi Fi dealers are recommending the glass platter be removed for an acrilyc one, DECO Audio for one and Edwards Hi Fi turntables swear by them.

Chris M

Hiya Chris. I've done absolutely nothing to mine, and can't detect any unwanted noise of any kind. Mind you, I don't play at high volumes. Sorry I can't help more.

 

[GeoffreyW]

As you have the RB300 arm, and have done the motor mod, then the next big step would, I think, be to upgrade the subplatter to a metal one. Whether this comes with a new bearing, I don't know. Re your rumble since the motor change, is the belt now tighter? Have you tried the white belt? And, have you tested the motor bearings, to eliminate them as your rumble source? Is the rumble there with the original belt and bearing ball?

Do you have a Rega dealer nearby, willing to have a listen?

Good luck sorting it.

 

[Chris Munden]

Thanks Geoffrey, my motor mod was only removing the rubber suspension system and fixing the motor via Rega supplied sticky foam pads directly to the underside of the plinth. My belt is a Deco Audio 'Little Green belter belt' which I'm told is as good as the white belt, Yes, its a tad tighter than the old original black belt, certainly not slack. To put the motor noise/bearing rumble into perspective and I'm not sure which it is, its only detectable on very quiet passages in the music or then the arm swings off to the centre. Its not though intrusive at playing levels, perhaps I'm being over critical? I wonder if a lighter Acrylic platter would help as there would be less weight bearing down on the ball bearing thus possibly less noise? they seem to be getting popular. I might take up the advice on this thread to upgrade the ball bearing.

Yes, I have a Rega dealer near me, in fact its near enough to walk to, I brought this to the dealers attention and he said either live with it or I can do a motor upgrade mod for you. Hmm

Regards

Chris

 

[Al ears]

Thanks Geoffrey, my motor mod was only removing the rubber suspension system and fixing the motor via Rega supplied sticky foam pads directly to the underside of the plinth. My belt is a Deco Audio 'Little Green belter belt' which I'm told is as good as the white belt, Yes, its a tad tighter than the old original black belt, certainly not slack. To put the motor noise/bearing rumble into perspective and I'm not sure which it is, its only detectable on very quiet passages in the music or then the arm swings off to the centre. Its not though intrusive at playing levels, perhaps I'm being over critical? I wonder if a lighter Acrylic platter would help as there would be less weight bearing down on the ball bearing thus possibly less noise? they seem to be getting popular. I might take up the advice on this thread to upgrade the ball bearing.

Yes, I have a Rega dealer near me, in fact its near enough to walk to, I brought this to the dealers attention and he said either live with it or I can do a motor upgrade mod for you. Hmm

Regards

Chris

Posted in error.

 

[GeoffreyW]

So, probably not the kind of dealer you'll be going back to, then? I'd have thought a "pop your turntable round and I'll have a look at it" approach would have been the way to go.

I presume you didn't buy your deck from him?

 

[Chris Munden]

Geoffrey, no, I bought it from Radlett Audio about 20 years ago but they relocated from Radlett which was just 10 miles away to some where in Essex. I'm going to Severnoaks Audio in Chalfont St Peter today, the are very friendly and helpful and no at all pushy. I will let you know how I get on.

 

[CJSF]

Hi Chris, I have a Rega P5, bought from Radlett Audio as an ex dem about 4 years ago at the new location, Mechanicaly the P3 and P5 are not disimilar, I spent almost 3 years on and off upgrading the P5, with all that has been mentioned here apart from the motor, it is original and causes me no problems.

I have gone further than the basic upgrades, with a ceramic main bearing and ball, I have added mass to the glass platter plus an isolated vinyal 3mm playing surface, the whole platter weighs 3.5kgs if my memory serves? The platter is also isolated from the metal sub platter, with tiny hard rubber half ball spacers. That mod was a majour step forward in presentation.

I tried a after market vinyal platter, a back ward step IMHO, to the sparkling but easy and rich presentation I enjoyed.

Further upgrades, new arm and cartridge all added to the presentation, however, the one thjing to remember when upgrading, no one change is a magic wand. If you get a 2% improvement from one change, perhaps 3% from the next one, only 1% from a 3 third, as a whole thats 6% total. On the bassis that I have done many changes my percentage is very high, if you see what I mean?

All my majour changes were done using a Rega 300 arm although the Sumiko MC Pear cartrige was a bit special. This I bought with a warn stylus that I 'finished off', you can imagine the wow factor when I had the tip replaced!

Another factor I had to come to terms with was changes that did not work over all, admit one has got it wrong and go back. The other thing that becomes evident as you reefine the sound via upgrades, arm and cartridge adjustments become more obvious. Just because the manufacturer says the cartrige tracks at 2grs, refinement will alow a better presentation at 1.9grs that could not be heard with the TT in basic form. Which leads you on to needing a proper digital stylus scales, £25 on eBay.

Then there is arm hight . . . which is a whole new balpark, ignored by many including Rega . . . That is where one needs to look at 'do I stop, or take the plunge'?

I took the plunge, it worked for me, my turntable has been put up against the very reverad Garrard G4 in its modern rebuilt form, not its match but but a very close 2nd, according to the re builder. Considering the overall upgrades significant here cost less than £300 total, plus arm and cartridge, it make one think.

I have stoped tweaking hifi now, achiving a quality that I am happy with, I now sit back and enjoy.

CJSF

 

[Chris Munden]

Thanks CJSF, very interesting about your tweaks and mods, I used to do all the tweaks and mods years ago on my old Thorens TD160 and for friends and IMHO we got them sounding every bit as good as a Linn turntable. From my experience and generally speaking, mods and tweaks tend to be minor steps up (some times a backward step) rather than dramatic. A culmination of several positive tweaks and mods can show discernable improvement. Its the same with when comparing a new later model deck to your old one, When I listened to my old Planar 3 against the new RP3 both fitted with the Ortofon 2M RED, it was a bit of a surprised as the new RP3 was 'slightly' better but not 'dramatically' better in its overall sound stage, I suspect that Rega have probably reached as far as they can go with that design except for the odd tweak, but to take that further, you might as well go up to another brand and save your tweaking money. Over the years I have come to regognise that there are none more convinced of their own propoganda, than those in the Mod/tweak industry. Having cast aspersions on them they do occasionally sell some fantastic upgrade products as add ons but tread carefully as some times you can move backwards regardless of what your told, and don't forget the 'Placebo' effect! To sum this up, its money with me, now being on a pension one has to spend money wisely, so as I initially asked Tweak my Planar 3 or part ex and move up and not necessarily to the same brand.

Chris