DandyCobalt said:
What's your budget? I'm enjoying a rega p3-24 with my cm8s, though I understand that the new rega rp3 is even better (about £500).
I trotted down to my local hi-fi emporium yesterday armed with a handful of LP's (John Martyn,Pink Floyd,Doors,Al Green, and Wings) to have a listen to the new RP3. Not thats anything wrong with my current set-up, far from it, but my deck is 27 years old now and is making a few odd noises lately, so I'm thinking to the future. I've worked out that should I break it down and sell on its individual components I could almost fund a brand new RP3.
I asked to have it set up with a Marantz amp and with a similar sized pair of floorstanders, so I ended up with a RP3/PM6003/Rega RS5/Chord Odyssey 2 set-up. The RP3 was fitted with a standard Elys 2 cartridge.
First thing I noticed was how quiet it was in comparison with my Systemdek, as I fully expected to be honest. A very simple design, considerably less bulky than my springy Systemdek.
I played tracks off all my albums and was very impressed, though to be honest I reckon a lot of that could be to do with the RS5 speakers which I was very impressed with. The soundstage and punch were excellent, though I felt that the sound was a touch brighter than I'm accustomed to, not too bright but definitely not quite as "warm" as my current set-up. Thats where the difference between the Elys 2 and Goldring 1042 probably comes in, but the salesman said that it would be no problem just buying the deck without the Elys2 and fitting my own fairly new 1042. Also to be fair the RP3 had not been played very much prior to my demo so the cartridge probably needed more running in time.
One very strange thing though. All my LPs were clean, no gunk etc. but when playing the track "Echoes" of Pink Floyd's Meddle LP, there was so much noise and distortion, that I had to remove the arm. It just would not play that track. I tried it on my deck when I got home later and it played fine. Very strange indeeed, as it was only on that track that that occured.
The issue with Echoes aside, I was very impressed with the RP3. Should I be looking in the near future to move on TT wise then I would certainly look at the RP3, £500 ish being the maximum I'm looking to invest in any new TT.
A couple of other observations.
1) What a great little amp the PM6003 is. Available now for little more than £200 new, they really are a bargain.
2) Rega speakers, well the RS5 I heard anyway, offer superb soundstage, nice controlled bass and great detail. I'd always imagined them as being "Bass light" but from what I heard driven by a 45W budget amp, not at all.
Just my observations folks.
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