We were very lucky yesterday to have a sneak preview of the new Rega RP10 turntable thanks to Rob from Rega..

Firstly - one of the things that we don't see very often is this serial number:

We decided to set it up in it's single skeletal chassis form without the outer frame and dustcover which looks really smart!

It's clearly apparent even from first glances that there has bees serious attention to detail paid to the RP10, probably the most impressive part is the build quality of the RB2000 tonearm.

All made from stainless steel it looks the business as well!.

The plinth incorporates Rega's unique skin sandwiching techniques giving an incredibly stiff and light material, also the ceramic platter has mad more attention over it's predecessor...

The platter is daimond cut to ensure it is perfectly flat, just another thing that makes you realise "where the money goes" in respect of man hours and cost of machinery etc that goes into producing the RP10. When you consider the tonearm alone, it's all machined stainless steel instead of a plastic mould and then has to be polished - even the bearings are matched by hand to each spindle. Also, a new power supply dedicated to the RP10, and to go one step further each motor is matched and tuned to it's own power supply.... you can get the idea now of how much attention has gone into every aspect of this turntable.

So... how did it sound?

We had the baby brother RP8 on as our reference turntable playing before we set up the RP10 and were we in for a shock! Immediately you could hear the improvement over the RP8. Initially the scale, weight and authority was amazing but after a few minutes the finer details were all becoming more apparent and the old "not heard that before" started coming out...

I love to hear the tonality of instruments and detial of voices. Hearing the emotional input a musician puts into their playing is something I love to hear, and things like a singers accents and emotion are all things I want to hear. I often joke that a bad system will sound like it's the same band playing the same instruments on every album in your collection and that there is so little emotion you can't tell if the singer is singing about their dog dying or winning the lottery! The RP10 was right up my street, one of the best tracks that showed how well the deck performed was Eric Clpaton - "Running on faith" from the re-release of the Unplugged album (a fantatic pressing - if you have an old one and love it - get a new one!).

We were sad to have to hand it back to Rob to take on to other dealers around the country, but glad for the listen.

To find out more about the design and process invovled in the RP10 have a look at the page on the Rega Website: http://www.rega.co.uk/

It won't be too long before the RP10 is available, so if it's something you may be inrested in please get in touch...

Cost - £3600.00 including cartridge.

more new toys soon.....