Rega P9 Review

by James Leahy

 

Introduction

Have you ever seen a Black Rega P9 before? Thought not; they are rarer than an honest politician. Being a special order only product in Australia and very exclusive I had to wait an agonizing 12 weeks for my personal unit. At the time Rega were going through a transactional change in surround manufacturers which accounted for the abnormally long time delay. Usually customers that are buying such a statement product do not mind a one time waiting period to get the exact combination they desire, myself included.

Because all my personal equipment is Silver, I special ordered the same colour power supply and this sets off the rig nicely with that showpiece Tonearm being the RB1000 finished off in a polished alloy appearance.

According to Rega's engineering department; they designed the awesome P9 with no financial restrictions whatsoever. It is the best turntable they know how to make at any price. So you can rest assured with this rig in your system you will not met with any compromises from your analogue front end.

                                        

As always with any serious Rega application I like to use the 6mm Rubber Mat as a performance upgrade alternative to the stock felt item.

What other cartridge would you mount to the RB1000 on a P9... The equally awesome MC Ortofon Jubilee of course. This table deserves the best in cartridge choice.

 

Beautiful Black Ash natural timbre surround complements the classic styling of this iconic table. This part is CNC machined and is of a floating design to provide maximum isolation.

They are designed to be cleverly interchange if you so wish to give your rig different appearance. Price on application.

The plinth is constructed of a complex CNC machined skeletal structure encased in highly ridged phenolic resin laminates making it an ultra lightweight fibre composite. This results in the plinth being even lighter than the previous Planar 9 and improves the performance again.

 

The totally awesome Rega RB1000 Tonearm.

This Tonearm takes thirty times longer to produce than an RB300. Currently at Rega H.Q. there are only two of their most highly trained and experienced technicians that can build this exotic Tonearm. The RB1000 carries more technological changes over previous Rega Tonearms than any produced during the last twenty years!

Key areas of improvement can be found in the bearing assemblies, wiring and materials used. Rega have worked to redistribute and reduce mass in areas of the Tonearm where mass is critical to performance. The easiest place to see these changes in evidence would be the new polished aluminium arm tube. It has no coatings of any type.

The changes we have made over the RB900 have resulted in a Tonearm with extremely high structural rigidity, combining ultra low friction movement together with massive stability.

Two 2mm spacers were used in this application to achieve the correct V.T.A.

A special Tungsten Extra Heavy Counterweight was used.

 

Your standard dual drive belt assembly on the P9 is also the same on the P7.

Machined Steel billet drive hub and idler are made to exacting standards and tolerances.

 

I believe the heart of the system comes from the external power supply unit. It is a quart crystal locked system and computer controlled with micro processors on all outputs. To ensure accurate speed stability of the platter motor, two quartz crystal control reference oscillators have been utilised.

This system produces a high frequency (3 MHz for 33 and 4 MHz for 45) signal, which is then divided down to feed generously rated, high current power F.E.T. amplifiers.

 

The output from this power supply is very pure (<0.03 THD, this is a lower value than many power amplifiers output). The beauty of this power supply is that a dual phase is supplied to the motor, the phases of which may be varied in relation to each other.

This means that the power supply phases are trimmed to eliminate all vibration from the motor. In turn, this means that there is no need for plinth suspension, which would ordinarily be required to eliminate motor resonance.

 

18mm Pure Ceramic Platter; a material that you would otherwise find on missile nose cones the insulation tiles found on NASA's space shuttle.

The reason for using such an exotic and difficult to produce material? It is the hardest material known to man apart from diamond!

The ceramic platter alone costs more for Rega to produce than their P5 turntable!

 

Gold Neutrik connectors are used for both tonearm output and power supply.

 

Sonic Evaluations

The album of choice for this review was one of my all time favourite bands. Fleetwood Mac and their legendary 'Tusk' album. Funny how certain albums bring back particular memories and feelings from the past. For me I remember the women I was dating at the time, the car I was driving and the places I visited. My copy was a U.S. pressing and produced by Warner Records, 1979.

 

I have been living with the Rega P7 for more than a little while now and would be interested to see how much better the P9 could take things. Also with my P7 I have fitted the RB1000 as an upgrade I did for myself. This would make things even more interesting and closely matched or so I first thought.

Not so. The difference between the P7 and even a Rega P7 + RB1000 Tonearm was dramatic from my testing. Both tables were run back to back for a direct comparison. The same Ortofon Jubilee MC Cartridge was used in both test and Phono Stage used was the ARC PH7.

The P9 sounded more musical and detailed with a fuller body of sound. In no way did I expect there to be such room for improvement. It was 50% better on an already amazing P7! I let this table play all night and half the next day when I first got my hands on it. You didn't even have to be in the same room to hear the improvement it made; the difference was that dramatic.

These results can only highlight the differences the platter, plinth and power supply make. I have a deep resounding feeling that it is the power supply that has been specially engineered to perform with the P9 that is responsible for making the greatest difference, followed by the platter then the plinth. When you pick-up the P9's power supply you can feel that it is a substantial piece of kit and well above and beyond the Rega TT PSU. After all P9 buyers would not expect anything less of course and I am sure Rega like they said pulled out all the stops when creating this magnificent package. The P9's Power Supply is a total redesign and a high-end component within itself, rather than merely a hotted up version of the TT PSU.

The Rega P9 is not only magnificent in performance but in usability also. This is a point all too often over looked when considering the best vinyl rig for your system. I have seen amazingly complicated tables that only take you to look at them the wrong way for every adjustment to need resetting. No only this but the Rega P9 outperforms many more visually impressive rigs (and costing more then three time for this design parameter) depending on your point of view.

Some people call me up and tell me they would like a P9 but it is so expensive. I answer, "Compared to what?". If comparing or making definitive statements you must always have a baseline or reference unit. When you compare the P9 to other rigs that offer similar levels of performance it is not at all expensive but represents exceptional value. Rega created the P9 for the Audiophile who demands the ultimate level of analogue performance with all the simplicity, no-nonsense and rock solid reliability customers Worldwide have come to expect from Rega. 

 

 

Associated review Equipment

  • Amplifier:           Audio Research REF600 Mk.II

  • Line Stage:         Audio Research REF3

  • Phono Stage:      Audio Research PH7

  • Speakers:           Martin Logan Odyssey

  • Cartridge:           Ortofon MC Jubilee

  • Cables:              Furutech

  • Subwoofer:         Velodyne HGS-15