Rega RP8 User Manual

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION / EVOLUTION OF REVOLUTION 1

TURNTABLE DESIGN & MYTHOLOGY 2

DESIGN AND INNOVATION 3-7

SETTING UP YOUR RB808 7

SETTING UP YOUR TURNTABLE 8

TTPSU / CONNECTION TO THE AMPLIFIER 9

TTPSU CONTROL AND CONNECTION 10

CARE OF THE TURNTABLE 11-12

TRANSPORTING YOUR TURNTABLE 12

OWNERS LOG 13

INTRODUCTION

The RP8 has been designed and engineered to achieve outstanding performance way
beyond the expectations of a product at this price point. Excellent build quality,
reliability and ease of use combine to make a product which, if used correctly, will offer
you a lifetime of musical enjoyment.

The RP8 takes Rega’s design philosophy further than ever before. A radical new plinth
using custom designed materials, a new tonearm bearing assembly, a 24V low voltage
motor controlled by a hand tuned electronic power supply and a custom version of our
Planar 9 engineered hub bearing assembly. These are just some of the features of this
amazing new turntable designed to extract more music from your vinyl than ever
before.

THE EVOLUTION OF REVOLUTION

Evolution is a well proven and documented process in many areas of our lives. This
applies in particular to design engineers and machines. Over the past forty years our
cars have become more reliable and economical whilst we take for granted the safety
and speed of modern aircraft. Rega is no exception to evolution. Rega’s experience and
previous achievements allow us to continually develop and produce better products.

The RP8 represents probably the biggest step forward in the evolution of Roy Gandy’s
turntable design philosophies. Low mass, high rigidity plinths combined with
electronically controlled low vibration motors, high flywheel effect platters and lower
mass, higher stability tonearms. The RP8 is the first of our new “skeletal” design
turntables offering groundbreaking levels of performance and amazing value for
money.

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TURNTABLE DESIGN & MYTHOLOGY

Today there are many approaches to Hi-Fi design which follow established and informed
engineering or electronic principles. Amplifier and loudspeaker design has been well
documented over the years with excellent technical publications. These subjects have
been based on tried and tested acoustic criteria and many computer software
programs now exist that enable a near amateur to design a passable working
loudspeaker based on known acoustic and mathematical parameters.

Enter turntable design: When it comes to turntable design we are limited to a few poorly
informed articles describing only very limited aspects of design. This is a subject full of
mythology. Designers propose theories that counter the basic laws of physics, use
terminology that doesn’t actually exist in the engineering world, build products that are
more like beautiful sculptures than acoustic reproduction machines and sell items
costing tens of thousands of pounds that hardly function as intended and often fail to
work at all. For instance a very common myth is “the heavier the better”. Turntable
bases weighing tens of kilograms are not uncommon. The reality is that the base
actually needs to be as light as possible to prevent unwanted bearing and motor noise
being transferred to the turntable or record. Platters also fall under a similar myth
with many platter designs becoming so heavy that it is impossible to design a correctly
functioning bearing (and some so light that anyone can hear the speed inconsistency).
The turntable platter itself needs to be of enough weight to spin at a constant speed
within the confines of the chosen bearing and motor drive system. Many amateur
designers in any field choose one component in a design and try to achieve an extreme
in size, weight and quality. They believe that by taking one theory to its extreme the
design will become “perfect”. The reality of all engineering, design (and life) is that
perfection is not possible. Based on this reality, Rega’s goal has always to optimise a
mixture of numerous “correct compromises” thus bringing the designer nearer to the
unachievable goal of perfection.

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DESIGN AND INNOVATION

SKELETAL PLINTH DESIGN WITH POLYOLEFIN FOAM CORE

Controversially Rega has always researched methods of producing light but stiff and
rigid plinths. The technology is simple: unwanted noise at microscopic levels is
developed by the turntable motor and main bearing. The plinth can also pick up airborne
vibration from the music. From the beginning in the 1970’s Rega pioneered the use of a
stressed skin structure for the plinth. This uses two layers of phenolic resin with a
lightweight particle or fibre board sandwiched between the skins. This technique has
been used in many applications where stiff, light structures are needed such as an
aircraft wing or a Formula 1 chassis.

The current revival in turntables has allowed Rega to research and develop higher
technology structures for the customer who is happy to pay a little more for higher
sound quality. The RP8 turntable utilises a unique new stressed skin structure
produced from thin phenolic skins sandwiching a featherweight nitrogen expanded,
closed cell, polyolefin foam core. This material has been developed exclusively for Rega
over a three year period. The RP8 plinth is 7 times lighter than the weight of the original
Planar 3 plinth. In addition Rega has added even more stiffness in the crucial area
between the arm and the main bearing.

SUPER FLYWHEEL EFFECT TRIPLE LAYER GLASS PLATTER

The new RP8 three piece laminated glass platter is the result of a collaboration with a
small, emerging, young British glass engineering company. As a general rule the only
part of a turntable that requires extra mass is the turntable platter in order to achieve
constant rotational speed. However a heavier platter creates more problems for the
main bearing design so again an ideal compromise creates the best solution.

Practically this means keeping as much of the mass to the outside rim of the glass
platter to create more flywheel effect while keeping the inside of the platter as light as
possible without sacrificing stiffness.

The RP6 was the first Rega turntable to use a precision engineered glass ring laminated
to the outside using modern CNC techniques to ensure concentricity. The RP8 takes it
one step further by laminating three rings together to produce the RP8 super flywheel
effect glass platter which we consider an engineering triumph !

MAGNESIUM AND PHENOLIC - DUAL BRACING

A super lightweight plinth combined with a double brace mounted specifically where the
increased rigidity is required (between the tonearm mounting and the main hub
bearing) forms a structurally sound “stressed beam” assembly. This design prevents
energy absorption and unwanted resonances which will add unnatural distortions to the
music.

The RP8 takes our double brace technology to the next level. Not content with an
unprecedented stiffness to mass ratio, Rega has obsessively reduced any resonant
properties by using two different materials for the new stressed beam. The top layer is
magnesium and the bottom layer is phenolic (two of the lightest and stiffest materials
available). Incorporating two different materials into the brace structure lowers their
ability to pick up unwanted airborne vibrations.

Simply put, different materials have different natural resonances. By using two
different materials together they decrease the natural frequency of each other by self
damping.

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