My new Rega RP6 - Pros & Cons

Thanks for the input! Believe me, I don't have any problems with the folks that don't care for the REGA turntables, as I'm used to the many varied opinions of "brands" on this forum, regarding everything. I have found that the only "major agreement" that we seem to have on this forum, is that Steve Hoffman is a damn fine mastering engineer and even with that, some (including myself), have found fault in a very few mastering jobs that he has worked on, which is fine and fair, in my opinion, to be discussed. My original post #164, was to just say out loud, that "before" this particular thread popped up, that many forum members here, along with a slew of outside websites, were mostly praising the REGA RP6, with the Exact 2 Cart, as it sits, new in the box. This thread, as most threads regarding audio equipment seem to do on this forum, is to confuse a simple buyer like myself. I realize that "changes" or "modifications" can always be done to sound equipment and that the companies usually offer a much better and costly alternative in their product lines (RP8 or above, in this case), but why are these guys seemingly never satisfied with what the company originally designed, especially on what seems, in regards to the RP6, on paper and by a good many vinyl listeners out there in the world, as an already fine turntable out of the box?

 

Some of us enjoy the journey and not just the destination.

 

I can understand that way of thinking, as I often enjoy the "hunt" for a certain record or CD, more than the sitting down to actually listen to it. But, with that said, how are you ever truly satisfied enough, with all of the constant changes in your systems, to actually sit back and enjoy what you have?

 

I have a Project table so can't speak to specific issues but have heard a RP6 which I though sounded very nice in stock form with a Dynavector cartridge. The thing about these forums is to realize that molehills quickly become mountains. I could easily be happy with some of the equipment that gets trashed the worst here (McIntosh, for instance). Enjoy your RP6!

 

LOL, because sometimes we DO appreciate the destination once we get there, for a while. Until that old demon starts in again, "Aw come on, just a short little road trip?" The most important thing is to enjoy whichever path you take. Neither of them are wrong, just different. If you don't enjoy it, its too much like work and I already have a job! Happy listening.

 

But You do understand that people can do what they want without having to defend it in any way.
Besides that it´s not mandatory to believe a Rega RP6 is a TT that will fit ones need.

 

Beautifully said and I wish you fun and enjoyable "road trips" in your future!

 

I don't want anyone to defend what they have or how they feel to improve it, but I sometimes feel bad (make that, sorry) for those of you who are so fortunate to have so many expensive toys, but are never completely satisfied with what you have and that you can never say the words, "enough ..., we're good here"!

 

The RP6/Exact is quite fine right out of the box. Everything else is just additional icing on the cake.
Get one and have fun playing records. They really do sound great.

 

But You are applying Your own belief of what is a more correct approach, that is the problem. It´s a hobby and people are choosing their own approach to what they think is fun.
It is not more correct to say 'enough, we´re good here' than to have other different ideas.

 

RP6 is stock with an Audio Technica AT33 PTG/ll on it and it is the best i have ever owned. I couldn't be happier and it's taken me FOREVER to get here!

 

I'm honestly not looking for a fight, I'm just trying to find the "reality" in all of the mods that so many feel are needed on the RP6 and if they are truly justified, or rather it's because you have the money and want to turn a "Ford" into a "Mercedes"? (By the way, I'm not saying that a REGA RP6 is a "Ford", I'm just using "Ford" to a "Mercedes", as an example of how I "read" the extreme modifications that many seem to want to give an RP6.)

 

I've had a rp3 for many years, which my dealer recently serviced so I can sell it to a friend as I'm long overdue
for an upgrade. I auditioned a 6 and was totally underwhelmed. I have friends with older Lp12's and
for the last couple months I've gone to listen to some more expensive tables, Michell, Avid, origin live,
a clear audio Ovation, Roksan xerexes, and the conclusion I made is that unfortunately I'm going to have
to spend more than what I was hoping to get a turntable that really does justice to the records.

I realize not everyone has the money or priorities to go for a more expensive table, and their system may
not be up the level, which means more costs later too. But in my opinion, as a long time rega owner,
who has done some auditioning, in the greater context, the rp6 is a very modest table that is only a very
small step up from an rp3.

The surprise outcome of my research was hearing an rp8 set up in another customer's system
of my local rega dealer. I posted this somewhere on another thread here, but the rp8 so
completely blew away the rp6, it punches well above the price. I much preferred the rp8 with a
dynavector 20x2 to the Michell I heard that cost over $7,000. The rp8 was amazing, and when
my rega dealer and I heard his demo rp6 back at his store afterwords, he was actually shocked
himself there was that much disappointment the rp6 faired so poorly.

But his conclusion was basically you get what you pay for, and given the rp6 is only $500 more
than an rp3. The sad reality is the music gets much better if you can spend more. The rp6 may
be a lot of money to some, but it's certainly not nearly getting to the potential of what is possible.
Another friend was saying there is diminishing returns the more you spend, and I really think that
point is far above this. On sound quality, I could easily justify the price of an rp8 over a less expensive
option, the difference isn't subtle! It's not even close.

 

Personally I would guess the difference in performance between most modifications are partly subjective and partly objective, and the ratio is difficult to know. I like to see measurements myself on claimed differences, otherwise I´m not that interested generally.

 

I presume You had the same cartridge on the TTs You were auditioning, and that everything else was the same.

 

Sarcasm alert; Of course, with the same record, same temperature, air pressure, and time of day.
Because of course the human brain isn't capable of extrapolating nor compensating for
more than one variable at a time.

 

I think you really hit the nail on the head here... It's going to cost more, a lot more than one might believe or wish to spend, but as you drop more hard earned cash, analogue playback does have its rewards!

Happy Analogue Listening!

 

I just wanted to point out the difficulties involved if compairing two TTs generally. If not the same cartridge, the same other components and the same records, well You know I mean, we really can´t, we really don´t have a clue.

 

Agreed. I have a few records I take for demos. The big unknown is always the room itself,
and even the set up of the stands. But all that said, I highly recommend that anyone take
every opportunity to listen to as many systems as they can without expectations. It's often
very difficult to put what you hear in context, but unless you've heard a really top flight
system, one really has no idea what potential for is good sound there is.

People often say "that's the best I've ever heard", which is of course can literally be true, but it doesn't
mean it's the "best" there is, which is how it's often portrayed, it usually just means the person
is excited about what they heard, and without context, can be quite limited praise and meaningless.

We can talk about lots of things on the Internet without having any actual real world experience.
The best demo situation is of course, to sub one thing into the system at a time, but it's
also valuable real world experience to go to live shows, hear different instruments,
and listen to the qualities. This develops a frame of reference that we rely on when
evaluating recorded music.

 

In my case I listened to all three 3,6,8all in the same system all w Rega carts. I chose the 6 because I didn't hear the 8 sounding a whole lot better. But I'm sure it is with the right setup.

 

I have no opinion on the performance of these TTs, or on which one people choose, it´s all subjetive anyway. What I meant was only that it´s not possible to have any opinion about the respective SQ, if not the most fundamental parameters are met. That will mean everything else but the TTs must be the same, to start with.

 

That seems to be the case I found too with pretty much every high end table. Once you hit the mid point in price for tables the improvements in sound drastically diminish. One area that does make a huge improvement is with cartridges. But even then once you hit that sweetspot in the line it's the same as the table.

Nothing wrong with a 6, it's a damm nice table for the price.

 

You are talking about personal issues that no chat forum is likely to help you with.

 

I realize non of this is cut and dried, and easy, yet even with strict A/B type comparisons, I find have their limits also and far from fool proof. It seems, no amount of science will subvert opinion about respective sound quality, and rightfully so. For if this were the answer would we not need to compare a HiFi kit to a myriad of live musicians, in a myriad of performance spaces (which is virtually impossible) rather than to another HiFi component?

In my experience it takes living with a piece of kit in the context of a system you know to truly understand and appreciate many of the subtleties and whether it fits, has synergy, and will have lasting strengths or not.

I guess I don't understand how we can, or why we would, work around our subjective take on musical reproduction, when the single strongest aspect of the craft and endeavor is to "fake the live music experience" and "fool our senses" to cause an emotional response. In practical means, I could not care less what is truly "accurate" by and large (whatever that means).

Most of all I pursue this "mental trick" of space and time cues and visceral impact of textures, colors, and musician technique to allow me to enjoy music, rather than focus on equipment and technicalities.

If not, then we could say, "hey Van Gogh, you painted Starry Night wrong!"

Better decks do that.

 

Consider yourself extremely fortunate if you you're satisfied with the sound of something at the level of the rp6.
After hearing some better gear, my own personal scale now puts the mid price tables at about a 4 out of 10,
hardly the point of diminishing returns. (which really was my original point) I think it's interesting
where people decide what they hear is "good enough".

Honestly, i'd rather save all the fuss and be listening to a good CD player. This coming from someone
with 40 years of vinyl listening. I really don't get what people are hearing with mid level TTs. Or rather, what
they are not hearing - because there is so much detail and nuance missing, it's staggeringly obvious.