Rega P3 upgrades

I'm no expert but it doesn't sound like they've balanced the arm. It should float, I think.

Enjoy your new deck!

 

That's good. That is how it should be when VTF is set. Balancing the tonearm is prior to setting VTF. If the tonearm always floated you couldn't play a record.

 

Thank! Yup I think its a good idea, if circumstances allow you to trade up or sell at a good value, definitely get the p6. I do miss the white plinth though. Ill take a pic soon and post it

Ok, my P3 floated and played, but I have to trust him as hes been working with TT for 25+ years. I just wanted to be sure because of videos I watched on youtube when I had setup the P3, so as long as its normal, Im ok with it.


Another question, do you guys turn off the NEO after powering down your receiver? I always lower the volume before powering off the NEO, but there is always a small pop as I power it off. Just wanted to make sure what is the best technique. Last spin I did, I turned off my receiver then powered off the NEO.

 

My local shop helped me set up mine at home over the phone, but basically was identical to the setup in this video from Audio Advice:

From what I’ve read and how I practice, I turn on the NEO, then my Fono MC, then receiver, then reverse order when turning it off. Though I keep reading about not turning off your equipment, which I guess is just in regard to your amp/preamp, right? I even read somewhere that Rega doesn’t recommend turning off the NEO when flipping a record (and the felt mat allows the appropriate slippage to not damage the motor) Seems excessive to me, but I’m a newbie coming from an RP1.

Congrats on the new table! I was about to grab a P3 and then found a smokin’ deal on a gently used P6 with Ania and a Fono MC for the price of a new P3 with Elys II and had to do it. Rega Brio is next on my list to upgrade my old Denon receiver.

 

Thanks! so yup, Ive watched this video, and at 3:15 where he shows the arm dropping down when adjusting the counterweight, thats what mine does. Also, the anti-skating is at 0 and he told me to leave it that way.

For the Neo, wow I didnt know they recommended that, thats a bit weird, but maybe I see it making sense also, I can try it , if its weird, I wont do it. I think Ill be turning off the receiver first going forward. for the phono, I leave the Moon on all the time as I dont have a switch for it to go on and off, and I think its recommended to leave it on anyway.

Congrats, thats a nice jump and good for you for getting a deal!


I have way too many questions, I got another one for everyone, I find the sound is great, I put on another lp today just for 10 minutes, sounded very good. But my question is, how can I get more bass? I put on a bass heavy song, Do I wait for the Ania to break in? my moon also still needs to break in. Would an Aria phono add more bass to the sound? not sure if this a dumb question I am asking.

I know if I listen to blu ray audio content, or some hi res audio files, I know I get more bass. So just trying to get to something similar. thanks

 

My advice is DON'T switch the Neo off!
In my ownership of mine it doesn't like the "hot & cold/on & off" cycles,as long as mine has enough air circulation it's happier staying on.

Cheers -evo777

 

I am trying not to anymore, I realized this, but also at the same time I have another issue when doing this. for some odd reason, ever since I changed to the p6, Im getting a whole bunch of static. So Im going to change my mat, as every time I try to flip the LP, the mat comes with it and its annoying. Might even look into getting that Milty Zerostat as well.

Another option the store gave me was to maybe try to ground the Neo? I guess this issue will all go away once I get rid of the static, I wont need to turn it off anymore until Im done, and at that point, I can power off the receiver first, then the Neo, and avoid and pop sound.

 

Ok,this IS going to go down like a "Lead Balloon" but here goes...

I demoed both the Rega P6 & P3 fairly extensively through the same system,with the same speakers & amp etc. The only difference was the P6 had a Rega Ania & the P3 had a Rega Elys. So to my ears....there was NO WHERE Near the nearly double price difference.... not-even-close!
Yes the P6 did sound better(not everyone would hear this mind you)but my thinking was this,"How close would those two decks sound with the SAME Cartridge on'?!

So I walked away from the sale at this point then purchased a Rega Ania some time later, that cart took me over 200hrs to fully break in(the sound change throughout this time period so this is how I determine break-in time &,I documented it with notes like all my carts for the last )
few years). Anyway it's not the best for the money to my ears & is easily bested by my Hana SL for £30 at the time which has a Shibata tip,the Ania is elliptical not as good at retrieving information.

Now onto the "set up" of your turntable particularly your arm,long story short YOUR DEALER HAS BALANCED YOUR ARM WRONGLY I'm afraid fella.

To achieve "0" balance the arm should float about 1mm above the platter when the arm lever is in the down position & v.t.f is at 0 too(getting it at exactly 1mm is not absolutely critical but it should be very close at least).

The thing with dealers is that they are "salesmen" & not necessarily experts at setting up a customer's turntable,this is online sites like eBay are popular with buyers who know how set up their own equipment,plus it's cheaper generally speaking(I know I'll take shots for that, don't worry!).

You've got the P6 now so let's move forward look, it's a really good turntable & you won't have to do anything to it especially since you're fairly new to turntables,if I were you if you don't know anyone that can balance your arm for you it really isn't "rocket science", just watch how it's done on YouTube,I& probably many others)did some time ago & it's fairly easy.

Cheers -evo777

 

Just a few questions, did you compare a stock p3 to what I am assuming a stock p6 w/Ania? I cant comment on money difference, but so far as I am playing different records, I do hear quite a difference. Lets not forget I went from stock p3 Elys2 to p6 with Neo and Ania. Im not good at explaining, but sounds much more alive now if that makes sense? As before it was decent and just there.

200 hours will take me forever, I kept reading at 50 hours you see a minor difference and at 100 hours it opens up.

For the tonearm, Im going to ask him again, I just dont get it, I believe what you are saying more, because based on what ive seen like you mentioned on youtube. its supposed to float and not drop completely when in the down position. I know he is a salesman, but I have to say, a lot of questions I have asked him (and comparing to research and reading I have been doing online),he has been pretty spot on with other stuff. He also mentioned that my p3 (because I traded it in) wasnt setup properly, I had done it myself using youtube videos, he said that the VTF was a bit too low, and had reduced tracking ability, and the anti skate was way too high, If memory serves me correct, based off a youtube video (again Im a beginner) I set both to 1.75 and made the tonearm float in my hands, that was it. so not sure how it was off in that sense.

Also one more question I wanted to confirm, because honestly even with the Elys I never checked, when the Ania drops on the LP , the stylus goes up by 1mm (maybe less) lets say when it touches the lp, Im assuming this is normal, from the old days when I used to listen to LP's I cant remember if stylus' are very rigid and dont move at all, or move just a tiny touch. let me know on that one please, Im assuming its normal.

 

have a look here about 2.55 onwards

 

Yeah I demoed(not compared big difference!)both in "stock" it`s easy for most of us to get trapped by sales talk,it`s happens to me with cars I don`t know anything about them really,when I want to buy a new car if I can afford whatever the sale person is saying,I suck it all up like most.When someone spends xxxx amount of ££/$$`s on something & they know they could`ve got an cheaper(sometimes better)alternative,they NATURALLY justify it to themselves.......this is human nature. I`m not being funny but I bet if someone was to sit you down in front of both decks running the same cart that,it would`nt as "easy" to tell the difference as you(or others)may think? And yes I have done a similar test on other hifi equipment.

But like I said that`s not important now that you have the P6 ,main thing is to get that your arm balanced correctly because,your cart WON`T be tracking correct & that ain`t good my friend.

Cheers.

 

So other question, what does the bad tracking do exactly? so at the moment is it putting too much pressure on the LP? is that the problem?

@Bazzaah thanks I have seen that video many times , thats what I had used for my p3

 

Again, another question, what is the difference of leaving the antiskate at 0 vs matching the Tracking Force # which is 1.75?

 

Yeah the Ania seems to take a long time to break-in but I'm fairly sure it's a 1.5k+hrs cart which is high so this could be a factor.

I've always found the RB Tonearms sound better with a lot less antiskate applied to them for example my cart is tracking at exactly 158g according to my scales but, I've the antiskate set to just over 1.0g.
I tend to set my arms up by ear as well,as I never used specifications to listen to music I use my ears & if it sounds right it is generally.

Funny how he knew your P3 wasn't correct but still made a school boy error with your very nice P6!

If it's one major bit of advice I can give you it's this....trust-your-ears....if it doesn't look or more importantly "sound right" it probably isn't,try not to get intimidated by some else views(even my own)it's your hard earned after all, that's why it's good to know how to; balance tonearms,set v.t.f correctly, change your own Cartridge(- the amount of owners on here that have to get someone else to change-their-hifi Cartridge is unbelievable)&,once you're more confident & experienced take-off or change your tonearm(God forbid, shock horror). Sometimes it's easier to take off the arm of it needs any maintenance, upgrading etc.

I'm not saying all this to shock you or anyone else but,as turntable owners/users we SHOULD be able to at least "change our own Cartridges", shouldn't we.... surly?

Cheers
-evo777

 

As I understand it the arm wants to naturally pull towards the center of the record & the antiskate applies pull in the other way out towards you, so it just wouldn't apply the outward pull & you'll get/hear channel imbalance during playback.
Easy answer is this,if the specs state 1.75g start somewhere near that & move the antiskate down in very small increments & listen to a record remember if it doesn't sound right it probably isn't.

Cheers.

 

Was the P3 running with a Neo controller, or just the wall-wart?

 

I definitely would like to get there, I have to be honest, anything else in my room setup, I have zero problems with, turntables is just really new and havent done enough playing around or research as I would like to have. Have a lot less free time these days.
Next order of business is definitely to fix the counterweight issue. and more importantly , Ill put on an LP and do a before and after test and see if I hear any difference, just more curious.

I might do this as well, but first Ill do the counterweight.

its really baffling to me because this store is very well known, I never shopped there often to be honest because they have too much high end stuff in there. Its past my price point. from memory, I think they always have a very nice showroom at the audio show that comes along once a year. anyway, I guess i put too much trust. I shall correct that issue on the next listen and try the antiskate, hopefully it wont be too hard for my ears to see if there is a massive difference. I thought at least I can trust him on the antiskate setup lol

 

and just to add, as I forgot , just to confirm, when adjusting the counterweight, I must assume it doesnt affect or correlate with any of the other settings tracking/antiskate?

 

@skads_187 Congratulations on the change to P6, I think you will be delighted with the improvements over the P3.

Regarding your arm settings, surely the tracking weight would be dialed in, so to check the dealer's settings you would perfectly level the turntable and turn the tracking dial back to zero before touching the counterweight. If the arm balances / floats, is parallel to the plinth, then it is perfectly balanced with zero tracking weight, you then dial the recommended tracking weight on the dial.

I'm only familiar with the original RB300 (and cheaper RB250) and generally set the bias / anti skate lower than the tracking weight, @KT88 will be very familiar with the RB330 / Ania and hopefully can suggest typical settings of both tracking and bias (anti-skate) for you as a starting point.

Regarding static, I personally only had problems when I used a carbon fibre brush with the record on the turntable, stopping that practice and using anti-static inner sleeves worked for me, others found the Milty very effective, some use double sided on the Rega mat, which unsurprisingly works very well on their turntables.

Happy listening!

 

If you want to adjust the counterweight, set the anti-skating to zero and the tracking force dial to zero. Then move the counterweight as necessary to balance the tonearm. After that is done, put the tonearm on the arm rest, turn the dial to 1.75, and push the anti-skating slider in to 1.75.

Skating force varies, so the compensation setting for it is not really much to lose sleep over. A setting as instructed by Rega should improve tracking ability as compared to a setting of zero.

 

Wall wart both decks were in standard form, just the P6 had a more expensive cart' in the form of the Sins vs P3's Elys.

Always trust your ears.

Cheers -evo777

 

Salesmen are salesmen are 'sales"men!

Remmber their job is to "make sales" in all industries I personally HAVEN'T got a problem with that.
He or she are going to know about what's inside the store a lot better than me all day long but,if as a customer you have like in you a turntable that you're not happy with & I'm the salesperson & know I SHOULD be looking at trying to get a fairly new or new product for a customer right, weather you purchased from my store or not shouldn't come into it,I want your business right I should be looking to do my best by you then maybe...just MAYBE when the upgrade bug bites you you'll come back to me as,"He or she done alright by me when I went in about my Rega P3"?
Some would call this "customer service".
Cheers
-evo777

 

Here you go fella this will sort you right out,you DON'T need the exact same tooling as used here I use a basic mini screwdriver set:


-evo777

 

Good to see the Rega torque driver and decent stainless bolts being used. Rega dealers have had this for the last 30 odd years, though Rega used to supply a decent Allen key. I also used a tape covered spanner to keep the nuts square and stop them grouching the headshell.

Rega cartridge tags used to fit Rega cartridges easily, but be tighter on some non-Rega cartridges, like Audio Technica - I don't know if this still true, but take care as the tags can bend reasonably easy and I did once break one. Rega had a bag of spares out to us the next day, which was very useful as one owner had broken three!

 

Oh another thing concerning your P6 & P3,if you're using a different Cartridge you'll mostly he hearing the "difference in carts" than the actual turntables themselves...!

You'll you have to look high & low to find someone who'd tell you that,a more "expensive turntable" with a mis aligned cartridge 'sounds better" than even a "budget turntable" that is CORRECTLY set-up!

Cheers
-evo777

This is still true of the RB Tonearm cart tags even more so now as I noticed on my RB330,but makes for a better & more secure fitting of the cartridge.
It`s much easier to use tweezers to help push the tags onto the cart pins,you still need a steady hand even with a spinal condition I change not only carts but arms too,so more physically able owners should be at least able to......."CHANGE YOUR OWN(expletive)CARTRIDGE"!
I wonder if I can pick up one of those Rega torque drivers from ebay or wherever?

cheers
-ev0777