Rega quality control?

[Cltn2080]

I recently bought a new RP6 and spent a couple weeks working with my dealer to get it set up and functioning properly. This has entailed making various adjustments with the arm spacer, replacing some parts due to defects, replacing an arm due to an installation error on the part of the dealer, and eventually exchanging the whole turntable for another one. All in all, there are probably a half dozen or so minor and larger problems that have needed to be addressed. Here are a few defects I've encountered between the two RP6's I've now taken home in the past two weeks: a platter with it's two glass pieces poorly fused together resulting in a number of large bubbles clearly visible in the adhesive, an arm/cable with a ground loop hum, and a foot that was fixed onto the plinth crooked. I worked with my dealer to address each of these issues one by one and yesterday went home with my new turntable with each of them finally seemingly resolved...

Then today while setting the tracking force and leveling the table I noticed something else. The platter is not actually parallel with the plinth, but tilting to the left. Enough so that it's plainly visible when looking at it from the front. It appears the bearing housing was installed in the plinth crooked.

Has anyone else here encountered similar issues with Rega products? Am I just having incredibly poor luck, or are Rega's quality control standards completely inadequate? It's beginning to look like that's the only reasonable conclusion I can draw from all this. I'm about ready to take it back for a refund and just forget about getting a Rega turntable altogether.

[kalypso]

This forum is full of reports with quality trouble of all kinds with rega, with all models.

Have a look in the rega-forum.

If you want a properly working turntable, you should better give the rega back and buy something else.

regards, kalypso

[nabil]

I would take it back and get a new one. I've owned Rega turn tables for the last twenty-five years and have never had any issues-they are well made and very reliable.

[kalypso]

When i was interested to buy a new table two years ago, i had to go to another city to have a look at rega tables, since all three high-end studios in my home town have thrown rega out ouf the stores due to quality and price problems. With one of that three stores i deal since three decades, with the others from time to time. None of these store-owners ever adviced me wrong.

When i saw those tables at a store elsewhere, i didn't feel the need to listen to them. A terrible workmanship for their price range destroyed my interest completely.

Even for the half of the actual price i wouldn't buy that stuff. ugly. simply ugly. To me it seems that rega does not realize the difference between simplicity and primitivity. Primitiv, that's what they are.

I am very sure: Two or three rega-generations from now on they will have a postcard-thick plinth with a tonearm mounted with loctite, for sonic reasons of course and as a result of regas "research"....

And of course, reviewers will affirm that.

I would return the deck and get a nottingham, for example. This will outperform every rega and last forever.

regards, kalypso

[smeg68]

It seems to be the newer stuff that has quality issues - the older planar 2's and 3's never seemed to have this trouble. Guess Rega started to build down as profits were being squeezed.

[jmercado]

I completely agree. When I saw them at this particular Audiophle Store they did not seem very well 'constructed'. Their emphasis was on 'keeping it simple'. All those in favor of the Rega Turntables will undoubtfully agree on the 'clear sound quality' which in all fairness, is probaly true. But having grown up in the 70's Turtable Vintage Era', Quality does not limit to sound only but durability. Maybe in 1973 when the company began, they did indeed produce durable turntables, but as of circa the last 10 - 15 years, I don't think so. I have known some that have these turntables and have constantly returned them for defects. I was thinking of buying one but you will get more for your buck by buying a vintage turntable (I have a Pioneer pl 518) for far less than 500.00 ( the P1 entrey level) and get a decent audiophile cartridge for 200.00 and still spend less than 500.00!

[watercourse]

citn2080: have you checked to make sure the aluminum cap is correctly seated on the subplatter, and not due to the bearing leaning in one direction?

on another forum out of GB, I saw that someone else had the same complaint about the bearing, and Paul Darwin from Rega posted to the OP to contact him directly with details about the problem, and he would address it. He tried to characterize Rega's QA/QC as so tight that this should never happen. Might want to contact the distributor or Rega then...

[Cltn2080]

Hey, watercourse. I concluded it was the bearing because looking at the turntable front the front, the platter, subplatter, and the bottom part of the bearing housing sticking out below the plinth all seem to be perfectly aligned with each other but tilted in relation to the plinth. If I focus on just the part of the bearing underneath, I can still see the tilt.

"A terrible workmanship for their price range destroyed my interest completely."

My thoughts exactly, kalypso. I only wish I'd been keen enough to realize it sooner. The reason I decided to sell my Pro-Ject and buy a new turntable in the first place was a desire to move up to something of a higher build quality. Now I feel like I've just taken a step backward for twice the cost! And the more I get to know about Rega, the more I find the whole culture of the company distasteful. Not only is the workmanship quality appalling, but everything about their product design, the gimmicks they add, and the way they market all of it seems to be designed to pressure you into a sort of forced loyalty to the company. "Adding spacers is imprecise and a hassle and you won't be able to take advantage of our new 3-point mounting technology with that Dynavector. Why not just go with a Rega Exact?" It's an insult to the customer, and it's more or less the same problem I have with Apple. I've just had it Rega's bullshit.

My other reason for wanting to just return it and be done with it is not wanting to have to deal with the store I bought it from anymore. There are a couple people there who are friendly enough but don't seem to understand a whole lot about turntables. Then there's the owner, who understands a fair amount but is just so rude and so arrogant and so unwilling to tolerate opinions regarding hi-fi that differ from her own that it's just an awful experience having to deal with her. Last week I dared to express some skepticism about a piece of advice she'd given me, and she responded by becoming very angry and lecturing me about how she's been in the hi-fi industry for 17 years and damn well knows what she's talking about. "If I say it sounds better, it sounds better!" is essentially her attitude. I just wouldn't want to be at the mercy of this dealer when I encounter future problems with the turntable, which is only looking more and more inevitable. Yesterday, I stopped by the store to return the stylus force gauge they had lent me and told one of the employees (the owner wasn't available) about the issue with the crooked platter I had just discovered some 20 minutes earlier. He actually tried to tell me that it shouldn't be a problem. "Do you really think it will affect the sound? I doubt it." was his response. Unbelievable. I'm going to return the RP6 in an hour or so and get my money back. I'm already feeling relieved to know I won't be dealing with these people any more.

[watercourse]

Yup. Return it. My alarm bells were accurate. Go to Eugene Hi Fi, they'll do you a solid every time.

[jorgjean]

I am a bit of a Rega fan please view my post in this light. 5 years back I decided to go back into vinyl listening and decided to buy a Rega P7 because it offered good sound quality for money. I was very happy for the sound after I found the right setup. I liked the fact that it has a lid/dustcover what disturbed me was the relatively primitive fixing of the arm, that was drilled with 3 screws into the plyboard of the table.
Then I came across a Transrotor table and it open my eyes how a solid turntable can be built. It has that nice SME headshell that allows to change cartridges so quickly and adjust the VTA angle very easily. And since I possessed already a few of them (headshells) I sold the P7 and bought the Transrotor. Very solid table with excellently tuned OEM Jelco 250-S shape arm (by the way outperforming the standard Jelco SA-750D and also the SME 309 which I had on the table - sorry to say). I must say though that the Transrotor is 30% more expensive than the P7. Soon thereafter I bought a new P7 as a second turntable because the Pound to Swiss Franc was so low. But I would never by a P7 at "normal" exchange rate as I feel the build quality is that of a budget table. I am not talking of the sound, it is a great sounding deck. For the build quality the rega is overpriced,I would rate them on par with the Project Turntables (build quality). But I still love my P7 for its simplicity / sound / ease of use and so far it has never let me down.

I also own a P78. That one I had to send back the first day I unpacked it as it was absolutely not useable. I got used to it now and it is ok for spinning the 78 vinyls. But it is of a quality/workmanship standard that it is not easy to get used to to put it mildly.

It seems that the Rega electronic gear is built to much higher quality standards, judging from the Rega DAC which I own. Great sounding piece of equipment with excellent built quality.

[watercourse]

I love my modded P5 and have not once had any issues with it or had concerns about its build quality. I'm finding it to be a great platform and very revealing and musical.

I did buy the first generation Apollo, and had to exchange it three times before trading the brand new one in for something else that worked. The Apollo just wouldn't read CDs sometimes, had to turn it on and off constantly, but it sounded really nice... The Exact II cart I had sounded good, but made a loud thunk after a minute sitting in the armrest... what the hell Rega?

[Cyreg]

.. The Exact II cart I had sounded good, but made a loud thunk after a minute sitting in the armrest... what the hell Rega?

Wel that's something I am already familiar with for 20 more years
Had it more or less(it gets less with more use) with my Superbias, Bias2,
2x Elys2, so......no problem here I would say
According to Rega that has to do with the specific construction they use!

[Lemesee]

Not what it used to be. I'd agree on that. But yet people continue to buy Rega tables, why? Maybe people like how the records sound. Maybe the dealer threw out Rega as much because it makes it harder to sell his higher profit margin tables (Rega Gear also typically has a higher dealer cost than some other brands). My dealer or distributor always addressed any issues, However I do feel Rega should start taking more pride in their work and their reputation if they want to preserve the loyal following (some would say an audio cult) they have built over many years. The same "word of mouth" advertising that worked in their favor can also work against them. And live up to that mission statement, stay true to your core.

[vincitsemper]

Maybe the older Rega models, those fitted with the R200, were better built than the newer models. The last three I bought, two Planar 3s and one Planar 2, had terrible paintwork on their arms. The paint flaked off on all three.

The platter bearing is not that perfect also, if you take it apart and check the bottom of the housing, most will have a big dimple where the ball has worn the brass away. One of mine so much so that I had to re-seat the pulley as the belt kept slipping off due to the platter being too low.

The arm is the best feature on any Rega.