[Kinger]

Hi guys.  Newbie to the vinyl circle here, but am presently considering obtaining a vinyl setup after hearing a Rega P3 at a friend's place (mchuckp).  mchuckp and I have similar setups and while I was impressed with the digital playback on his system, it was his vinyl that really engaged me.  Had never really sat down and listened to vinyl on a quality rig before.  Sure there is some background noise including the occasional pop and click, but it's nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.  There's just something about the vinyl sound that lead to a more lifelike sound to me especially comparing albums that I have heard on CD before and always thought sounded kinda thin. (Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream for example.........)

Anyway, all of this has lead me to consider buying a RP1 or RP3 of my own in the coming months.  Part of me says I should just go for the RP3 as it's the better table, but part of me says I should really just go for the cheaper RP1 as I have no vinyl collection to start with and if I don't care for the "ritual" of vinyl down the road I won't have as much invested.  This leads me to a question on the RP1 platter however.  Do any of you have experience with the new RP1 platter compared to the upgraded glass platter offered through Rega?  I have read where many replaced the P1 platter with glass to improve the sound, but I wasn't sure if that was still a necessity with the RP1.

[Wayner]

Lots of people are replacing the glass platter with an all acrylic platter. So maybe you'd want to leap-frog the upgrade. Some claim that the glass platter tends to "ring", others even replace the injection molded sub-platter with a after-market all metal platter. There are also after-market lower center of gravity counterweights for the tonearm, and a belt upgrade.

I'd go with the P3-24 regardless. It's worth more and it is sought after more, so if you decide to get out of vinyl, there will be folks interested in buying your P3-24 over a RP1.

Wayner 

[Kinger]

Thanks for the comments Wayner as I know you are quite knowledgeable when it comes to this spinning the black circle stuff.

I had considered a P3-24, but with them being phased out for the RP3 my only choice will probably be on the used market.  That's not a bad thing if my local shop is willing to go over a used market purchase to make sure it's set up correctly and possbily install a new cart (if the used table didn't come with one or I wanted a different one).  If they are not so hot on doing that, I'm a little more leery of purchasing used.

[WC]

Toneaudio did a review of the RP3. They did a review and liked the RP3 over the P3-24.

http://www.tonepublications.com/review/first-us-review-the-rega-rp3/

[Wayner]

There is not much difference between the 2, same motor, same plinth, perhaps they fooled around with the arm some more, but I think the RB301 is not as good as the old RB300, just for the fact of the single mounting hole requirement. Anyway, the P3-24 is on sale at many e-stores like the Needle Doctor and Music Direct.

I haven't heard the RP3, so that wouldn't be right to recommend something I haven't heard. I guess if you can get it for the same price.....

I'm not a fan of the Elys cartridges, so I personally would get just the deck and go hunting for a cartridge elsewhere.

I'm sure that there are some cost savings (more profit) for Rega to drag some of the tooling cost reductions to other models. Probably will happen to the P5 too.

Wayner 

[Kinger]

The Toneaudio review of the RP1 was what really got me considering going that route instead of the RP3.  Thought I was going to have to do a glass platter upgrade on the P1 to really get better sound out of that "budget" table, but reading the Toneaudio review they made it sound like it was no longer a necessity.  With that out of the way, the cost difference between the RP1 and RP3 becomes larger and thus makes me think I would be better off spending that difference on things like actual LP's

Don't plan on using an Elys cart.  Was thinking more along the lines of an Ortofon red or blue mm.

[planet10]

Lots of people are replacing the glass platter with an all acrylic platter.

I replaced my R2 glass platter with a diy coruan one with good results.

dave

[InfernoSTi]

I'm very happy with my ChoirAudio R-Mass platter.  http://www.choiraudio.com/R-Mass.htm

John

[Kinger]

Thanks for the recommendation on that platter and it sure looks nice.  However, at the cost of that platter on top of a RP1, I think I'd just prefer to go with the new RP3.  I guess the point of my post originally was whether or not people had experienced decent luck with the new RP1 platter thus making the upgrade cost to glass no longer a requirement.  The cost differential between the RP1 and the RP3 isn't slight so I need to determine for myself whether that extra cost will be worth it when I'm just starting out in vinyl.