Upgrade from the Rega Planar 2

I currently have a Rega Planar 2 (2016 model), and I really like it, but I have the well documented ground hum/buzz problem. I've tried just about everything I could, but it seems Rega turntables just won't work in my house. So I've decided bite the bullet and get a new turntable.

Figured if I'm gonna get a new turntable, I may as well upgrade. I don't need a massive improvement, just a decent one. I looked into some turntables and was thinking about the 1Xpression Carbon Classic because it's on sale on music direct, or the Mofi Studiodeck, even though it's pricey (I would like to keep it under $1,000). I'm open to buying new or vintage, but I don't really know much about vintage turntables and you guys seem to know your turntables, so I wanted your guys' opinion. Just to clarify, if it wasn't for the P2 grounding issue, I wouldn't feel the need to get a different turntable.

My setup:
cartridge: Nagaoka mp-110
speakers: dali zensor 1s
phono preamp: bugle 2
amp: some basic insignia amp

 

If you’re sure it’s a ground issue, have you considered having the tonearm rewired? Example here - Incognito Kits

I haven’t heard the Planar 2 issue myself or researched it, didn’t know it existed. This is just something to explore if it’s truly the ground.

Not knowing where in Minnesota you are, I checked the Minneapolis Craigslist. Sansui 929, Thorens TD-150, JVC QL-A7...good stuff.

 

My RP6 will have a faint ground hum if I don't ground out the PSU. I just losened a screew on it's slipped a ground wire around the screew and tightened it up and grounded it to my phono preamp and it completely disappears. I've also seen an RP3 grounded by doing the same thing with the motor mount.

That said, I'd go with the Technics SL1200GR. It's the best table I've heard under 3K.

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll see if that works when I get home.

 

I'm fairly certain it's a ground issue, I brought my setup over to a friend's house and the hum was significantly less noticeable. Also, I have never had this problem with another turntable. I'll look into rewiring the tonearm, but I don't have any experience with rewiring tonearms, so I'm a bit hesitant.

As for the turntables, thanks for checking Craigslist, I should have put that I'm in the Twin Cities on my profile. I'm interested in the JVC QL-A7 as it is very affordable, the Sansui also looks nice too but it's triple the cost haha.

 

I would be wary of Pro-Ject turntables as they seem to be extremely prone to hum from reading the many posts on this site devoted to the subject. I have a 'vintage' (90's) Planar 3 which has never given me hum issues over its long and venerable life. I carried out an Incognito rewire on its RB300 tonearm many years ago and, despite one or two delicate, 'fiddly' operations, it wasn't difficult, even for a novice like me!

Stick with Rega, I'm sure you'll find a suitable solution with perseverance.

 

Twin Cities, I would check out Needle Doctor they might take your Rega on trade on new. I bought my P6/Fono/Ania from them. Good guys to work with.

 

Pioneer PLX-1000 is a good choice if you're staying under $1k. If you can spend more, the Technics SL-1200GR as said above is really very good and might satisfy you for many years. I have both and no hum from any of them.

 

I have a P3 with a Grado Platinum, it hums. It always has hummed. Fortunately I only hear it at the lead out. Some carts are just going to hum on a Rega. I have a P5 that has been fitted with 2 different Benz Micro carts, it's never hummed. I would try a different cartridge.

 

Understood, and maybe not for you, but for anyone else in the market, there is what looks like a pretty nice Denon DP-60 on Asylum Trader for around $500, I've no idea how good it is other than what it says in the ad ...




Denon DP 60 Turntable - Audio Asylum Trader

 

^Good call. In fact any top of the line vintage Japanese DD is an upgrade. For example, my Yamaha DP-Y8 with Denon DL-110 is a stunning combination.

Friends don't let friends buy Rega.

 

$500 is a very nice price, I might spring for this because i can easily sell my rega for at least 400. I am a little bit wary about buying vintage without being able to test it, but I'll look into the this tt more and see what other prices this is going for. Thanks for the suggestion.

Especially if it is an upgrade like libertycaps is claims.

 

Yea, just treat my post and the link as a suggestion on what is readily available in the market right now, not necessarily as a recommendation for that table or that seller. The DP60 was hugely popular, so there are tons of them for sale, but I don't think you will find many in decent shape for below $500 unless you just luck across one locally, sellers are getting pretty savvy and prices are high. This one just looked pretty nice and mentioned recent service and has a good lid, but the seller has no rating at AA, so as always, be careful. And if you do buy something like this, make sure you communicate with the seller, and get a good feeling about them and the deal, and make sure they understand how to correctly pack and ship a table.

 

An upgrade would be almost any turntable with an "S" or "J" style tubular tone arm. Turntable manufacturers are slowly catching on to what other heralded turntable manufacturers discovered back in the 1970's. Eventhough they have both straight and "S" style tone arms, Stanton recommends the tubular "S" or curved type.
Why have many of the current turntable manufacturers, especially those which look like they were designed/assembled in someone's garage, used straight shaft tone arms? Cost. A tubular tone arm with compound bends are much harder to make.

 

Afraid I would have to disagree with this bit of advice. All the arm tube bend does is offer another way of dealing with cartridge offset needed when aligning a cartridge. This way the cartridge can be square in the headshell, but that is it. You accomplish the same thing on a straight arm by turning the cartridge during the alignment process so that cantilever is parallel to the grid lines.

A straight tone arm allows for the use of different types of materials, such as carbon fiber, ceramics, or alloys in the manufacturing process, which typically is not done with a J or S shaped arm. So there are advantages in certain respects to a straight tone arm wand.

IMHO current manufacturers use the J or S shaped arms for a distinctive look, or a way to stand apart from the crowd, or create a retro look.

Cheers
Mister Pig

 

Project is one table I would be leery of, especially the lower priced units. They have been known to have hum issues, and the arm wiring is delicate at best. Many people end up having cartridge clips fall off multiple times.

For new the Mobile Fidelity table you reference has been well received. I certainly would consider one. If your budget can stretch a touch the Marantz TT-15S1 is worth looking at. There are pre owned options from places like US Audio Mart and Audiogon, and you might get a nice Well Tempered or VPI for that kind of money.

But for new, the Marantz anf Musical Fidelity should be solid choices.

Cheers
Mister Pig

 

I have a Denon like that...before you buy it make sure it was fully serviced by a qualified tech. The Auto features are subject to failure if the caps go bad.

Otherwise, you would be hard pressed to find something that outperforms a well serviced one for less than the new Technics 1200 models. Really nice units, these.

 

One of the most important things an "S" or "J'" style tone arm adds is mass, to promote better tracking. This is the key reason that, commercially, when you couldn't afford to have a skip or stick, getting rid of the straight shaft tone arms helped considerably. One of the side benefits is that vibrations love to travel in a straight line and a curve helps to break that path. Mainly being made of metal, round and tubular, with "S" or "J" style tone arms, if unwanted vibrations are still a problem, easy, remove the headshell and slide tight-fitting O-rings onto the shaft. Like with many rotating shafts or wheels, you've just added a vibration dampner. Many of the straight shaft tone arms, tubular or not, don't have removeable headshells. Another cost-cutting measure. So, if you have one of these minimal tone arms, and you have a vibration problem, you're s- out of luck.

 

I dont think I can agree with these ideas. A J or S shape might add an incremental amount of mass, but its far easier to add mass with either a change in material, or a thicker side wall. Adding mass to any kind of arm design is not a difficult problem to solve.

A curved arm does not lessen vibration in the arm. The tone arm is basically a pipe, and there are tons of engineering abstracts out there about vibration in pipes used in manufacturing. All that data applies. the consensus is that to lessen vibration you need to improve the rigidity of the pipe. This is a function f pipe length, wall thickness, and material. The practical engineering solution is to install supports or internal discs to stiffen the pipe along its run. Of course in a pipe carrying a fluid these rings have to be flow through, and in an arm it needs to be able to allow internal wiring to pass through. Actually this is what Jeff Spall does at Audiomod with his arms. He adds internal stiffening discs, then drills the arm tube multiple times to remove mass and allow the finished arm tube to be the same mass as the original tube he started with, yet be far more rigid.

Integrated head shells have nothing to do with cost savings. It has everything to do with eliminating resonances between a detachable head shell and arm tube. It also eliminates a set of contact points that cause signal loss. Yes its less convenient to swap cartridges out, or even install them. But its all about improved rigidity and signal transfer.

I can say I have never seen a SME V owner or Graham Phantom owner need to install o-rings to get acceptable performance from their arms. The arms are designed right, and this is not an issue that comes up.

With all that said, my second table has a Acos GST 801 arm that is Jshaped, has a head shell, and sounds lovely. Its an excellent arm from its time period. The machining, and tolerances are a testament to Japanese manufacturing. But it is not at the same level of performance as the above mentioned Grahams and SME arms. It is not my best arm either, as that is a 12" Riggle Engineering Woody.

Cheers
Mister Pig

 

As a hobbyist who has developed into a frequent changer of cartridges, I have found the removable head shell tonearm to be an important feature on my primary turntable. I'm not sure I'll buy another turntable without removable head shell, even though I've been very happy with the function and sound of machines with straight tonearms. The changing of cartridges has become too important and too frequent to me not to be considered of primary importance in turntable purchases going forward.

 

And the amazing thing about S-shaped tonearms is that raising or lowering the VTA / tonearm tail will not affect azimuth! With most straight tonearms with offset headshells, the azimuth changes with VTA / tonearm height! Not good!

 

I am afraid I don't follow this line of thinking. Please explain how changing VTA is going to change cartridge azimuth. And please explain how a S/J shaped arm is immune to this. Because as I see it changing VTA means you are changing the height of the rear of the tone arm, and it raises both sides of the head shell equally, which is what would affect azimuth. After all, even on a straight arm tube the end of it rides equally between the yoke on the bearings. Which is supported by the pillar and raises/lowers the structure evenly when VTA is changed.

Now I have seen where VTA adjustment will affect overhang. And that makes sense, with either arm type.

But affecting azimuth? Never seen this referenced.

Cheers
Mister Pig

 

It has nothing to do with the arm shape, I think he's referring to the angle of the vertical pivot bearings. Some tonearm makers pivot the tonearm at the offset angle, while others pivot it in the axis of the armtube. For example, my Thorens straight tube arm has an angled pivot while my Micro Seiki S-shaped arm doesn't. I think Michael Fremer likes to bring it up in tonearm discussions, but it's pretty minor to most designers, and there are advantages to pivoting on axis, so many designers do it that way. There's no perfect design.

 

Good question- it isn't very obvious- with s-shaped tonearms the axis of the horizontal tonearm bearing is perpendicular with the axis of the headshell. Raise the tonearm tail and the VTA changes but not the azimuth because the headshell and cantilever are perpendicular to the toneram horizontal bearing.
With some straight tonearms, the horizontal tonearm bearing axis is not perpendicular to the headshell axis or cartridge cantilever. When you raise or lower the tonearm, the headshell actually twists slightly along with it.

 

I can't live without the features of the direct drives based on the SL-1200 anymore: removable headshell, pitch adjustment, no need to oil, no need to worry with belts, perfect speed, all arm adjustments easily available etc