Rega Planar 3 RS Review

Introduction

Everyone loves a bargain and any deal where you get more product for less money is always going to appeal, particularly when we’re all feeling the pinch.

Rega has always been keen to offer products that are strong value for money but they aren’t above doing a deal from time to time. Back in 2023, to celebrate their 50^th anniversary, they built a limited edition run of their Planar 3 turntable called; wait for it… the Anniversary.

This came in a special wood finish and had some extra options bundled on that meant that you got more than a thousand pounds of turntable despite it costing £900. As a limited edition though, when 2023 came to an end, the Anniversary ceased to be.

This is where the Planar 3 RS comes in. It’s another special edition (and the use of the word ‘special’ rather than ‘limited’ is deliberate because it will be made for as long as people want it) that bundles some extra hardware together for a lower price than it would cost to add them to a standard Planar 3 and then wraps it – quite literally – in a new finish to boot.

At the psychologically important price of three figures rather than four (just!) and in the face of Pro-Ject being on a rather decent run of their own, is this now the best sub £1k turntable that money can buy?

Price

The Planar 3 RS is available in the UK for £999. Rega uses a network of dealers across the UK which means you are unlikely to be terribly far from one but some of them are authorised to ship the RS online as well. In the US the Planar 3 RS will cost you $1,795 and has much the same retail arrangement as the UK. In Australia, it costs $2,199 AUD.

The Planar 3 RS is different to the standard Planar 3 in that, while the basic model has a degree of configuration; you order it with or without a cartridge for example, the Planar 3 RS has one fixed specification level which helps Rega get it out of the door for the price that they do. It does mean that if you need more flexibility, the standard Planar 3 might be the way to go.

Design

• Iconic Planar 3 aesthetic…
• …which needs the same Planar 3 treatment
• Unique finish   
• External PSU needs space of its own

The basic design of the Planar 3 RS is the same as the standard Planar 3 and this is no bad thing. This is a very pretty piece of design where the simplicity of the look itself gives it a beauty and sense of proportion that many fussier rivals can’t match.

Absolutely nothing on the RS doesn’t need to be there and it gives the Rega an elegance that even some significantly more expensive turntables cannot get anywhere near. The combination of glass platter, slim plinth and a tonearm that doesn’t have anything hanging off it makes for a very handsome thing. It is an absolute doddle to extract from the box and setup too.

The most unusual thing about the RS is how different it feels to the standard Planar 3 and the Anniversary. The RS doesn’t feel like furniture and neither does it feel like a standard Planar 3. I don’t know exactly why this is the case but the RS feels closer in overall execution to the skeletal Rega models further up the range.

The result might be £100 more than the Anniversary was but it feels like an altogether more serious piece of hardware at the same time. There is nothing I have tested at the same sort of price that generates the same sort of feeling.

The same basic design as the Planar 3 means that the same limitations apply to how you place it. Where something like the Pro-Ject Debut EVO2 has very pliant feet that give it a decent level of isolation from the outside world, almost regardless of the surface it is placed on, the Rega is much more rigid. This means that, depending on what you happen to place it on, the Planar 3 RS might be susceptible to outside interference. Rega’s solution has long been to use a wall shelf but this won’t be practical for everyone.

The most distinctive element of the RS is the finish. Rega has coated it in a new take on its high pressure laminate which uses metal for the first time. This makes it considerably stiffer than the standard Planar 3 and starts taking it towards the more expensive Planar 6. This plinth costs no less than three times as much as a standard Planar 3 plinth and isn’t included in the breakdown of the extra kit you get with it.

One part of this extra hardware will need a little thought though. The RS comes with the external power supply and speed control. It’s a useful extra but it does mean that the Rega needs a little more space than some other models do at this price point and that space will need to include you being able to reach the PSU as it has controls on it.

Specification

• Stiffer than a conventional Planar 3
• External power supply and speed control
• All new moving magnet cartridge.
• Scope to upgrade

The bespoke finish of the RS isn’t simply to make it look smart – it makes it stiffer and lighter too. Why does this matter? Put simply, stiffness and lightness is everything in Rega design terms. Rega plinths get stiffer and lighter the further up the range you go (making Rega high end turntables feel comparatively unusual judged against more massive rivals). To this end, the RS is a meaningful step forward in what Rega feels is important above everything else in vinyl replay.

As standard, the RS comes with the Neo PSU which is an option on the standard Planar 3 (and comes as standard on the Planar 6 and Planar 8). This provides a high quality 24 volt supply for the motor, reducing unwanted vibrations that can make their way to the playing surface.

As the speed control also includes electronic speed selection for 33 and 45RPM, it also means that a simpler, higher quality pulley can be used for the belt, rather than one that allows for both speeds from the same rotation. This PSU is one of the single largest upgrades you can do on the standard Planar 3 so having it here is a big deal.

At the end of the tonearm you’ll find an example of Rega’s new Nd5 moving magnet cartridge which is the second of three models in the Nd range and a big step up over the older Rega moving magnet models- which included the Exact cartridge on the Anniversary. It combines a nude elliptical stylus and a very potent neodymium magnet generator, while the body borrows heavily from the company’s moving coil designs. As noted earlier, the RS is only available with the Nd5 pre fitted which means that if you happen to have a cartridge you really like, you’ll still be paying for the Nd5.

One feature of the Nd5 is shared with the other Rega cartridges and may be useful in the future. Where most cartridges have two screw mounts and need to be aligned, if you use a Rega cartridge on a Rega tonearm, it mounts via three bolts, meaning it aligns perfectly every time.

This means that changing the Nd5 cart on the Planar 3 RS to an Nd7 or one of the Ania moving coil models would be entirely straightforward. This is joined by other upgrades too like a smarter arm counterweight and the external phono stages that Rega produces that means that the Planar 3 RS has more to give if you want.

Performance

• Sounds like a Rega should…
• … but different to a normal Planar 3
• Genuinely hi-fi performance from vinyl
• Plain and simple good fun

After a few hours of listening to the Planar 3 RS in the context of other electronics I knew well, the impression was that this is every inch a Rega. What do I mean by this? The Planar 3 RS is an exceptionally dynamic sounding record player. Listening to the cheerfully ballistic No One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age, the Rega captures the driving intensity of the track as a whole. It hits fast and it delivers a level of punch that is rather surprising from something that looks and feels as delicate as the Rega does.

There is also a quality to the stereo image that is very distinctive. Compared to a few turntables you can buy, the soundstage of the Planar 3 RS isn’t quite as expansive; it’s actually a little narrower than the Pro-Ject Debut EVO2 for example. What this does very effectively though is ensure that everything within this space has an order and logic in relation to everything else.

Even very complex material like Channel the Spirits by The Comet is Coming stays understandable in a way that sometimes even the digital file can’t manage.

This order and lack of compression means that at times, the Planar 3 RS sounds more like a Planar 6 or even a Planar 8 than it does the ‘normal’ Planar 3. There is a reduction in anything you might remotely perceive as mechanical impingement on the record.

The Planar 3 RS gives you a glimpse of what the more expensive Planar models can do and it does it more effectively than I thought was possible for something so closely related to the ‘normal’ Planar 3. It has been a little while since I tested a Planar 6 in this space but I suspect that the RS gets quite close to it.

Some of this closeness will be down to the Nd5 cartridge. The new Rega moving magnet designs are a massive step forward over the models they replaced and the combination of Nd5 and Planar 3 is a fundamentally satisfying one. The tonal richness and realism on offer here is genuinely hi-fi; something that is a genuine reproduction of the master rather than a pleasant take on it. There has been a line of thought doing the rounds in audio circles for decades that the Planar 3 represents the point where vinyl really starts to become a serious listening medium. The Planar 3 is unambiguously good enough for this to be the case.

It does this without ever losing the joy and engagement that Regas have long been good at. For my sins, I am a huge fan of late eighties/early nineties electronica act The Shamen. Listening to the 45RPM version of En Tact on the RS is plain and simple good fun. The Rega is able to do truly impressive things with high quality pressings but ensure that less than perfect material in your library sounds decent too. There is a tractability to how the RS sounds that means you’ll keep wanting to use it.

Should you buy it?

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