The Rega Planar I was first unleashed on to a feverish public back in 2010, but it’s been refined and refined again since then. The latest has a new RB110 tone arm, with precision bearings and automatic bias adjustment, and this is combined with a tracking weight whose ideal position is already marked for you.
Now that’s helpful, and it means you can set the turntable up in no time at all – perfect if you want to start spinning your vinyl ASAP. So you’re all set up, and a copy of The Tallest Man On Earth’s Dark Bird Is Home is on the deck, but what does this bad boy actually sound like?
What Hi-Fi say: “This is not an entry-level amount of detail. The roomy-sounding acoustic guitar is complimented by the reverb in Kristian Matsson’s first vocal line; the distinction in treatment of each part is clearly audible, setting the vocal apart like a bird gliding low but parallel to the ground.
“This combination of accuracy and a skill for knitting together the different strands is even better displayed a few minutes later as a group vocal lusciously shrouds the closing phrases.”
Well. A bird flying close to the ground. Doesn’t that sound nice?