Rega Naia Turntable

Written by Bill Philpot, the late Paul Messenger, and Rega co-founder Roy Gandy, A Vibrational Measuring Machine is the title of the 2016 book chronicling Rega Research’s history and design concepts.

In its quest to create and market the ultimate “vibration measuring machine,” the British company has worked diligently, you could say almost ruthlessly, over the years to reduce the mass and increase the rigidity of its turntables. A low-mass, stiff plinth (or whatever you wish to call the platform that holds the platter bearing and tonearm) is essential, Rega argues, to thwart the transfer of bearing and motor noise to the platter surface, as well as to minimize the intrusion upon the system of outside vibrations, both airborne and surface-produced.

Properly executed, super-low-mass rigid designs evaporate unwanted energy like water droplets hitting hot pavement. Rega has been averring and proving that for many years. That doesn’t mean it’s the only approach to turntable design, but it’s certainly a valid one.

In Rega World, both low- and high-mass systems improperly executed create problems. Low-mass, mechanically soft ones can vibrate like drums at high frequencies, and that’s obviously not good, while high-mass ones can generate resonances at low frequencies that are difficult to stifle and so linger and produce an unacceptably muddy, “slow” sound. Mass alone can’t sink low-frequency resonances.

Rega’s argument has always been that light and stiff obviates the need for high mass, and that deep bass production has nothing whatsoever to do with high mass. The goal is to produce a turntable that accurately reads the vibrations produced by the stylus coursing through the groove, while not reading extraneous ones produced by motors or bearings or coming from the outside world, or perhaps most pernicious of all, vibrations produced in reaction to the ones produced by the stylus/groove interface.

Of course, there’s more to producing a great turntable than a light, stiff plinth that effectively holds the bearing in place. Bearing quality itself is critical both for accurate platter rotation and low noise and low vibrational energy. And because what’s being measured is stylus velocity/displacement (unless the cartridge is optical or strain gauge, in which case it measures amplitude), speed consistency is as critical as speed accuracy. Motors vibrate and there are “steps” between motor poles that must be smoothed out. Rega prefers belts (round “O-ring” types actually, but not actually “O-rings”) to help smooth out motor vibrations.

Platters must have sufficient mass and stiffness to further reduce motor-produced vibrations and to deal with bearing-produced ones. Mass properly placed on a platter enhances flywheel behavior that further improves rotational consistency.

Tonearms present their own set of performance variables that most readers here have explored, so let’s not get into those in this admittedly simplified overview, other than to remind you that Rega values rigidity over adjustability, so there are no adjustments for azimuth or VTA/SRA.

In 2017 I visited Rega for the third time and got to see the then still in the experimental stage Naiad, which represented and still represents the ultimate in Rega’s thinking. Though it was originally intended as a non-production design akin to what automobile manufacturers display at car shows, due to fan demand Rega made and sold a few $45,000 Naiads.

Based on Naiad research and using today’s highest-tech materials, Rega has over the past few years produced a series of high-performance, lightweight turntables that are its best performing yet: the Planar 8 and Planar 10, both of which I’ve reviewed. They are super-rigid and super-lightweight, and their motors are controlled by sophisticated electronics that allow for speed to be precisely adjusted and motor vibrations minimized, with each motor “tuned” to its PSU mate.

The Planar 8, which offers a lightweight plinth, with rigid RB880 tonearm and Neo PSU that provides electronic speed control and fine speed-adjustment, costs $3495 without cartridge. The Planar 10 is more “Naiad-like” and features an even lighter and more rigid plinth, an upgraded ceramic-oxide platter, a newly developed machined-aluminum subplatter and hardened-steel spindle riding in a brass bushing and a new RB3000 arm. It sells for $5695 without cartridge, and as with the Planar 8, package deals with Rega cartridges produce considerable savings.

Naia Ups the Performance, And the Price

Like the Planar 10, the Naia is based upon Rega’s hand-made Naiad, but it kicks everything up more than a few Emeril Lagasse-like notches, bringing it closer to the Naiad technologically and, unfortunately, in price. At $12,995 without cartridge, the Naia is more than double the cost of the Planar 10 and by far, Rega Research’s most expensive normal production turntable ever.

Why the price jump? The Naia uses a graphene-impregnated carbon-fiber skeletal plinth with a Tancast 8 foam core sandwiched between the graphene outer skins. The Planar 10 uses the same Tancast 8 foam core, with a not as stiff a high-pressure laminate skin. The Naia uses two ceramic-aluminum oxide braces, one on top and one on the bottom, instead of the Planar 10s single ceramic brace on top and phenolic brace on bottom. The second ceramic brace adds further stiffness that allows Rega to cut away even more plinth. Not quite to Naid’s hero sandwich look, but closer to where the arm and platter dominate.

Before delving further into the tech, I have to pause to say that the minimalist Naia look takes it into five-digit dollar territory. Does the performance merit the price? Read on!

Rega further upgrades its familiar-looking tonearm to the RB Titanium, which includes a one-piece titanium vertical bearing, a titanium vertical spindle assembly, and a tungsten counterweight and counterweight stub. These are more than cosmetic changes, as anyone who’s experimented with various metals in these positions can affirm.

I can. I just evaluated two versions of a cartridge, one with a titanium body and one of aluminum, with the same inside guts and they sounded completely different from one another, timbrally and dynamically.

A new ceramic aluminum oxide platter features a larger center opening compared to that of the Planar 10’s, to accept the new aluminum subplatter’s mount, featuring a spindle and central bearing manufactured from ZTA (zirconium toughened alumina). That’s among the Naia’s most significant performance upgrades and a major cost driver.

ZTA is an abrasion-resistant ceramic material developed for industrial use that Rega says is perfect for a central bearing assembly, except that it’s extremely costly and difficult to manufacture. It starts life as a powder and after a complex process not necessary to detail here, gets fired for three days at 1600 degrees Celsius. The finished bearing must then be honed to precisely fit the ZTA spindle. The “perfect fit” matched pair remain together and are then assembled within the Naia plinth.

Because the spindle and bearing are manufactured of the same exceptionally hard material (as opposed to the typical stainless spindle/brass bush bearing), wear is minimal to non-existent, especially since the spindle runs on a super-thin layer of synthetic oil. Rega claims this produces the longest-lasting, most accurate bearing assembly it has ever produced. No doubt it’s also the costliest. Obviously such a smooth-running, precision assembly reduces friction to a minimum and thus unwanted vibrations.

The triple “O-ring” aluminum sub-assembly is by far Rega’s most complex. I put “O-ring” in quotes because Rega’s round belt made of EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) is not your typical, irregular, half-construct “O-ring,” though it sort of resembles one. Instead, the company has paid its usual fanatical attention to R&D to produce rings that won’t beat one against the other in a triple line-up and do more damage than good to speed accuracy.

Three years of work produced a new specially cured rubber drive-belt compound that exhibits a consistent elasticity and is manufactured on Rega-designed tooling that the company says produces “perfectly round” and “dimensionally accurate” belts, necessary for “perfect speed stability.” Anyone who considers this level of attention to detail plain old audiophile “snake oil” posturing hasn’t taken the time to consider the infinitesimal dimensions of groove etchings and how important all these nuanced improvements can be to improving sonic performance.

The literature doesn’t make clear how or if the Naia “Reference Power Supply” that drives the 24V low-noise bi-phase AC motor (also used on other less costly Regas) differs from what’s used on the Planar 8 and Planar 10, but it drives the motor using a crystal-controlled DSP square-wave generator that produces a “near perfect” sine wave. Each paired motor/PSU is hand-tuned to minimize vibration and fine speed adjusted. If need be, though it’s not likely, you can fine-adjust speed in 0.01rpm steps or return to the factory setting.

Some readers think a plinth-mounted motor means noise. The P10 I reviewed elsewhere used a new motor mount system developed from the Naia that was claimed to be even more effective. When I listened with a stethoscope, motor turn-on produced a very-low-level turn-on sound that was then barely perceptible when the platter reached speed.

This wasn’t sufficiently satisfying for some of the peanut gallery (though outboard motors mounted on pods often produce more noise depending upon how well they are damped and upon what surface they are placed), so how about this? While it was difficult to find a Naia surface upon which to place a stethoscope drum, when I finally did manage, there was no audible noise with the motor at speed and a ridiculously low amount upon start up.

While the online P10 manual includes specifications like PSU weight (3kg), dimensions, and turntable weight (4.7kg), the Naia manual printed and online doesn’t provide this information, so I couldn’t confirm that the PSU used on both is identical, but I assume it is.

New ultra-low mass “skeletal” aluminum feet complete the product description. Oh! And there’s a very useful, easy to use, space-saving dustcover that protects platter and tonearm, which is a good idea since in keeping with Rega consistency, the mat is a dust-attracting fiber one like what’s used throughout the line. I’m not trying to be “smart” here. I appreciate the line continuity. I just don’t like the mat, especially when it clings to the record upon lift off, breaks free, and threatens the stylus’ health and well-being, and is a dust magnet.

The Rega Aphelion 2 Moving-Coil Cartridge

Rega’s latest premium moving-coil cartridge is a third-generation design of a unique construction that does not require the usual rear-mounted tie wire to secure the cantilever assembly, or the usual elastomer damper held to a specified degree of tightness to the coil former, the front part of which produces the system’s fulcrum and all of which determines the cartridge’s compliance. Instead, Rega’s design uses a long cantilever, here boron, wherein the joint pipe that holds the cantilever is inserted into a larger diameter “holder” that fits through a rhomboid-shaped elastomer (red), which serves as both the system’s fulcrum, and the cantilever’s placeholder. For obvious reasons some sort of arrangement must be involved that prevents the cantilever from rotating on its longitudinal axis within the elastomer.

To one end is affixed (cemented) a nude “fine line” stylus, the radii of which Rega doesn’t provide in its specs. It appears to be Ogura-sourced, but that isn’t certain. At the other end resides a “hand wound” magnetized micro-cross former wound with 0.018mm wire (I assume copper).

Because the sides of the precision-machined, “zero tolerance” aluminum housing are open and protected with a transparent laminate of some kind, you can see inside, where what Rega claims is “the world’s most powerful neodymium magnet” (the green structure in the photo) is affixed to the end of a bolt threaded into a structure that holds it in place.

The distance from the coil former to the magnet can be adjusted, but what can’t be adjusted is the relative positioning of the bolt and the opening through which the cantilever goes, and the lateral positioning of the bolt holder itself relative to the fulcrum point opening. All must be perfect or the ship sinks.

Of course, by “hand-wound,” Rega means a trained individual works using a precision coil-winding machine. You wouldn’t want a genuine “hand-wound” coil on your cartridge—if that’s even possible.

A long cantilever can spell cleaning person, child, or cat trouble, but Rega has carefully thought this through. The front of the body features a curved paperclip like protrusion that both partially protects the cantilever and acts as a holder for the stylus guard that easily slips over it.

Suggested tracking force is 1.9–2.0g, and as you can see, in this construction deviating much from that can easily degrade the magnet/coil relationship. Input load impedance is 100 ohms; output impedance is 10 ohms; output voltage is 0.35mV; channel balance is equal to or better than 0.1mV; and “separation” is rated at equal to or greater than 29dB.

The Aphelion 2 costs $5545. Bought in combination with the Naia turntable, the total price becomes $16,995, meaning you’re getting the cartridge for $3995 or a considerable $1545 saving. That means before you go for the Naia/Aphelion 2 combo, you might consider other $4000 cartridges and spend the same $16,995.

Setup

With the cartridge pre-installed, the Naia was out of the box and ready to play within ten or so minutes (on a perfectly level surface). Carefully lower the platter onto the hub, install the counterweight, balance and set tracking force, set anti-skating to second position, plug multi-pin connector into the PSU, and you are ready to play records! It’s one of the easiest to set up high-performance turntables there is—and so lightweight.

Keep in mind that Rega’s three-bolt alignment produces a “quasi-Stevenson” alignment that compared to Löfgren or Baerwald variants produces more distortion over most of the record side, while helpfully moving the second null point considerably closer to the label than either of the other two. With “Rega/Stephenson” if you play mostly older classical records, you can often get to or past the big difficult-to-track finales before distortion escalates beyond the second null point. If you mostly play newer records or double 45s that are cut to nowhere near the label, you’re getting more distortion with no benefit!

It’s easy enough to remove the front screw and using a good alignment protractor (like the WallyTractor) try other alignments. If you don’t like the results, just replace the third screw, and you’re back in business.

Quick Cartridge Exam

When I reviewed the original Apheta cartridge introduced in 2006 (the first Rega cartridge to employ the unique no tie-wire design now in its 3^rd generation), I appreciated what it did well but not an annoying upper midrange sonic ledge that break-in didn’t eliminate. The stylus assembly’s orientation also didn’t help.

Happily, the Aphelion 2’s channel separation and balance met specs. SRA was approximately 92 degrees and VTA usefully low. That is how a cartridge should measure when supplied by a company whose arms don’t allow those parameters to be adjusted! Using the Hi-Fi News test record, the horizontal resonant frequency was ideal at 9Hz and vertical was around 7Hz (between 8Hz and 12Hz is where you want them to fall). What’s more, on the Ortofon test record’s trackability bands, while every other mc cartridge I’ve tested slid off the 100µm peak band, the Aphelion 2 tracked it! A bit of buzzing, but it tracked it. That’s a first.

Turntable Housekeeping

Don’t worry: How Naia sounds is coming up. But first, look at the speed measurements using the Shaknspin app. I must repeat every time I use it that it’s not a “lab-grade” instrument, but it’s still very useful, and its limitations apply to all turntables measured using it. The factory speed setting according to the app was 33.32, close to perfect, but the average speed was even better: 33.331, with a percent deviation of 00.00%. I don’t recall ever before seeing all zeros.

Impulse-type “tap tests” don’t necessarily define turntable isolation, but they are helpful. I’ve had some big heavy turntables here with elaborate isolation feet that passed everything, especially low-frequency components of both platform and plinth taps. Footer cosmetics don’t isolate.

Naia’a low-mass, hollowed-out feet isolated effectively, especially at the lower frequencies, and the plinth (what there is of it), was in most locations equally effective, producing a “tight,” fast, quick-to-dissipate “pip” instead of a “thump”—less “tap” was transmitted the closer to the tonearm you tapped, which was not at all surprising given the location of the double ceramic braces. The RB titanium was also extremely well-damped. Tapping on it with the volume well up produced silence.

In other words, I went into the listening part of the review filled with optimism.

Me No Denia the Naia

I exited the review feeling the same way I went into it, so let’s avoid any drama. The Naia is the turntable Rega has, for decades, been aiming for, which is not to say the ones below are not successful designs! The Naia epitomizes, and its sonic performance confirms, the design philosophies so fully explored in the book referenced at the beginning of this review.

No, I did not have a Planar 10 here to “A/B” with the Naia, so there’s that, and the Aphelion 2 is new to me, but when you hear a turntable that produces this kind of quiet and obvious speed stability and accuracy, you hear it. It actually helped, not hindered to have two $200k+ turntables on hand during this review. I could hear where the far less costly Naia competes and where it doesn’t.

I used multiple phono preamps including the inexpensive $439 Schiit Skoll at the bottom of the price ladder and the $52,000 Ypsilon VPS-100 (SE) (silver wound transformers, silver internal wire, and silver connectors) at the top, in conjunction with various step-up transformers that will be reviewed shortly, as well as with Ypsilon’s own large MC-16L and MC-26L.

Before listening to anything I was determined to add to the review how the Naia sounded with other cartridges, but once I got into the review, I found the Aphelion 2’s sonic and mechanical performance so attractive and satisfying I decided to just review the “as delivered” combo, especially considering that anyone can pretty much unbox and perfectly set it up in a matter of minutes.

The Aphelion 2’s timbral balance—at least when used with the Naia, is as neutral a moving-coil cartridge as I’ve heard, which is not to say it matches or betters in all ways the best I have here that cost as much as the turntable. If the Naia sounds this good with Rega’s own cartridge, I’m sure if you choose to pair it with something more costly and exotic, you’ll get the desired results (but only if you send the cartridge off to WallyAnalog for a complete evaluation and appropriate shims to correctly set VTA/SRA, azimuth, and even zenith angle).

One of the first records I played was Vivaldi in London (VALDC017), a brand-new double direct-to-disc title from Chasing the Dragon performed by Interpreti Veneziani and recorded at Air Studios, a venue I was lucky enough to visit for another Chasing the Dragon Production, so I have a good handle on the large open space’s acoustics. Side B’s Concerto for violin, strings and harpsichord presented the nine-musician ensemble as shown in the jacket art, though not with each in an exaggerated space but rather as a coherent ensemble in a well-defined space. You could more easily “see” the cello and double bass off to one side but still well integrated with the picture. Instrumental textures were supple and delicately drawn, and timbres were accurate. The violins were never screechy, the double bass and cello never suffered bloat. A testament to the recording engineer too, of course, and to the room, which was offered in impressive relief behind the musicians and a series of arrayed baffles.

But I played the same record on two 20-times-more-expensive rigs, where cartridges alone were Naia-priced, and while you’d easily hear the differences, the Naia/Aphelion combo produced equally stable, well-defined, and fully satisfying images and soundstaging. Rock-solid and well-focused. Especially impressive was the Naia’s attack-delicacy on the strings.

Joe Silva’s Band on the Run 50^th anniversary edition review (published on the TrackingAngle website, and the capital E is how he spells it) piqued my curiosity, so I laid out the $50 bucks and bought a copy. I’m generally not a fan of Miles Showell’s ½-speed-mastered cuts from digital files, though it’s difficult to know who’s responsible, Miles or the engineers who prepared the digital files. In this case, they all did an excellent job overall, re-inventing the record for 21^st century ears. It’s an enjoyable listen filled with detail surprises and clarity, though as usual, attack subtlety, sustain, decay, and especially instrumental textures take a hit, and depth flattens. All the microdynamic cues that differentiate “real” from “mechanical” get lost. If you don’t know they were there, you won’t miss them.

Compare Paul’s bass on “Mrs Vandebilt” on the original versus the reissue. One is “deep bass,” and the other are bass strings vibrating. The Naia dug out and effortlessly presented all these differences in ways that only better turntables manage. If you want Paul in the room, or to hear the percussion on “Bluebird” sound startlingly real, or to get the full bass textures, then get an original U.K. It’s got space and three-dimensionality and is filled with sonic “love” in place of “clinical precision.”

The Naia laid bare all those differences and when I compared them again and listened to both on the Naia and on the 20x-priced rigs, what most impressed about the Naia was its bottom-end control, speed, and clarity. It didn’t exaggerate and produce false bass-extension mud; nor did it truncate or attenuate the bottom end.

On the original Band on the Run pressing, the Naia expressed every one of its positive qualities, including the superiority of the drum smacks on the title tune and, especially, the subtle echo behind the vocals. On “Jet” that nasty opening diesel-truck-like synth accent had full weight and snarl backed by a deep bass accent. The sixteenth-note piano fills on the tune were cleanly presented, and most importantly the entire presentation hung together three-dimensionally in all the ways only great turntable and cartridge combos manage. I think Geoff Emerick would approve (but perhaps not so much with the reissue).

To hear the full benefits of this turntable’s background quiet and speed accuracy and the Aphelion 2’s exceptional tracking abilities, check out a well-recorded and pressed solo piano recital like The Lost Recordings’ double-LP stereo release Emil Gilels Amsterdam 1976, recorded at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. It’s limited to 2000 copies, but it appears a few remain. Kevin Gray cut from carefully prepared high-resolution files, and here the goal was not to “modernize” but rather to present what’s on the tape, which I guess needed some digital domain prep. Whatever the reason or reasons for digitization, the stereo sound puts you in the hall, with the piano presented with three-dimensional clarity and stability. The large reverberant space behind amplifies the reality without interfering with either the well-defined piano image or with Gilels macro- and microdynamic expression.

Finally, after reading somewhere about a botched digital transfer of Benny Carter’s Further Definitions (Impulse AS-12), I pulled out and played the original, mastered by Rudy Van Gelder. Recorded in 1961 by Johnny Cue, with whom I’m unfamiliar (a different engineer gets credit for the mono edition), it features Coleman Hawkins, Jo Jones, Phil Woods, Charlie Rouse, Dick Katz, Jimmy Garrison, and (guitarist) John Collins (in parenthesis because I never heard of him either). Four saxes, piano, guitar, bass, and drums impeccably arranged by Carter and performed by greats, many from the “old school” but some like Garrison, Woods, and Rouse (who was moonlighting from Thelonious Monk’s group) still in their 20s or 30s. (Garrison would join Coltrane the next year, but by the time this was recorded he’d already played with many greats.)

A fun big band record in which the saxes can either sound hard and somewhat brittle or sail on smoothly, as they did through the Naia/Aphelion 3 combo. On Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail,” there’s subtle guitar comping center channel throughout, Katz’s cleanly recorded piano on the left channel, with plenty of surrounding space, and sax solos by Carter, Rouse, Woods, and Hawkins, the four spread two left, two right. On “Body and Soul” with no drums, Garrison’s bass carries the rhythmic load, each pluck cleanly rendered oh so subtly center channel. Truly black backgrounds spotlight the delicate interplay.

This Mat Not That

The Italian company Sublima Audio Research manufactures and sells Mat Chakra in Standard (190 euro) and Limited Editions. You have to get past the stones and other products that will turn off many visitors, but please plow through to the mats! You’ll find a link to a review and an explanation of how this sandpaper-like mat works, which I wrote elsewhere. I used both for much of this review, in place of the supplied standard white-fiber mat. If you own a Planar 8 or Planar 10, I encourage you to give this super-thin, stiff mat a try. The difference it made on the Naia was substantial IMO, good as the sound was with the standard mat. The Mat Chakra intensified the black backgrounds, produced better-defined transients (especially bass transients), and to my ears made everything sound more precise, three-dimensional, and vivid.

Conclusion

The Naia presents an exquisitely tight ship for a record to sail on. Both the arm and table take Rega’s thinking to the limits without totally breaking the bank to Naiad territory.

Stopping at Naia makes sense because according to Rega, while Naia can be a production-assembled product, Naid cannot, and because once you’re in $45,000 territory there’s very serious (but not as stiff) competition. I can’t say the Naia is twice as good as the Planar 10, but I can say with complete confidence that it’s much better in every way than the Planar 10, and the measured performance demonstrates that.

Because the Aphelion 2 is more advanced than the original Rega mc’s I’ve heard, the combination produces timbrally neutral, well-balanced sound, and it tracks better than any mc I’ve tested. The cartridge is a fitting Naia companion. If you encounter reviews claiming the Naia/Aphelion 2 is “all you’ll ever need” or “performs as well as turntables costing 10 times as much,” well those reviewers are either satisfied at a different performance level or have been listening to the wrong top-tier turntables. There are some not-so-good ones that the Naia beats, especially in speed stability, rhythmic polish, and background quiet.

Put it all together and you have a remarkably compact, lightweight, high-performance package that at $16,999 is costly but not impossibly so and that, out of the box, can be perfectly set up and playing records within 10 minutes. If there’s another turntable that combines all these attributes at the Naia’s price I haven’t seen or heard it—and I’ve seen and heard plenty!

Specs & Pricing

Type: Belt-drive turntable, tonearm, and cartridge
Tonearm: RB Titanium
Cartridge: Rega Aphelion 2 MC
Plinth: Graphene Impregnated Carbon Fiber and a Tancast 8 polyurethane foam core
Motor: 24 V low noise motor with NAIA reference power supply
Dimensions: 13.8″ x 4.5″ x 16.5″
Weight: 17 lbs.
Price: $16,999

Soundorg (North American distributor)
1009 Oakmead Drive
Arlington, TX 76011
(972) 234-0182
soundorg.com