Digital Drive: REVIEW: Rega Planet 1st gen. CD Player/Recorder by AnalogJ

Model:	Planet 1st gen.
Category:	CD Player/Recorder
Suggested Retail Price:	$795
Description:	Top Loader
Manufacturer URL:	Rega

Review by AnalogJ on March 23, 2009 at 12:44:36
IP Address: 66.30.99.36 Add Your Review
for the Planet 1st gen.

Okay, it quick review of this "classic" player 10 years later:

I recall that, when the original Planet first came out, I had a chance to take one home for an audition. This was amidst all the adulation coming from the press. The review that most impressed me was Art Dudley's review in his own wonderful bi-monthly (RIP), Listener Magazine (Art, PLEASE bring it back!).

In any event, my audition left me cool. It sounded warm, and harmonically closer to the vinyl I was getting back into, but it lacked the real pulse, weight and pulse of both the Rega Planar 3 I had heard and the vinyl setup I was used to. I understood the appeal in that it didn't have the digital harshness of the other players I had heard at the time, but it didn't grab me.

Spin forward 10 years. I decided to sell my digital front end to create some cash flow. I thought I'd go back to my Marantz DR-6000 CD Recorder. Not a bad player. Though not extremely musical, it's pleasant, warm and relatively rich. I tried to start it back up from storage and it was close to being dead on arrival. The transport inside was on the fritz (with all respect to Germans -- I don't know the derivation of the term and why somebody named Fritz got such a bad rap.).

Asking around my local Boston audio major domo list, I got an offer from a friend on the list who used to write for Listener who had the original Rega Planet review unit that Art Dudley used for his review. It has been passed around from reviewer to reviewer at Listener at the time, rarely played after that. He offered me the unit at a price within my budget and I figured I'd give it a chance again.

Here's the bottom line:

The same flaws I detected 10 years ago are still there, and I detected a couple more -- rolled off at the frequency extremes, particularly in the bass, little soundstage and conveyance of room ambience....BUT, I could now appreciate its strengths. The tonality is really nice, totally lacking the digital nasties. Instruments, within the frequencies portrayed, sound very real. That couldn't really be said for machines at the time. Nowadays, there are plenty of budget machines that sound relatively rich and warm.

Where budget machines fail nowadays, to my ears, is in the propulsive nature of music. The Planet, even 10 years later, does a really good job at conveying the lyricism of the music, the forward momentum and the micro-dynamics that give quieter music a sense of inner soul as well as compel you to tap your toes. Listening to more lyrical jazz, folk or classical, I can really hear the intent of the players and can be moved by their communication. Pace is pretty well handled as well. This is a pretty quick player. Music can move right along. Is this possibly due to the simplicity of the D/A conversion compared to all the upsampling going on with most modern players? Overall, then, there is a sophistication to the music that is present when listening to simpler CDs.

On the other hand, with large scale music, the original Planet sort of falls apart. Large scale dynamics are really compressed. You will not feel the air in your room move with the large thud of bass drums. There just isn't a whole lot in the way of presence. My previous setup was a CEC Tl51X transport and Audiomat Tango 2.5 DAC, and with that setup, the bottom end of a piano had weight, and when a bass drum or even a floor tom was whacked, I felt it. Not so with the Planet.

Complex music doesn't get sorted out with the Planet either. Whatever soundstage is there when the music is simple collapses dramatically. This is not the player for large-scale symphonic music. Macro-dynamics are pretty much non-existent. Now, I have to tell you, knowing how I have played with power cords with my various sources and amplification, I am guessing that the Planet would benefit BIG TIME with a power cord replacement and I'm thinking about trying it. The original Planet used a hard wired power cord, and it would take some surgery to replace it, but having replaced OEM power cords with better cords on other equipment, I know how much improvement in many sonic areas, including dynamics, can be had by bettering the power cord.

So, here is the bottom line: If you might be looking for a budget player and your music tends toward the likes of folk, jazz or chamber music, this might be a good way to go. I think it plays better than any new players you'll get for under $500. I'm seeing them go for about $300 or less on the used market. I think you'd have to go for at least a Rega Apollo to get a musical player with this much sophistication that is a large improvement on this one. Of course, it depends on your musical priorities. Have you heard any players under $600 that will really have you tapping your toes?

Product Weakness:	Lacks large-scale dynamics, little in the presence region, falls apart with complex material, little soundstage.
Product Strengths:	Full-sounding from upper bass on up. Instruments and vocals have natural timbre, lyrical, good at pace, good at conveying micro-dynamics of music, lacks digital nastiness, can be soulful with the right material.

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: modified Unison Research Unico integrated
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): None
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Rega Planet (original)
Speakers: Castle Edens
Cables/Interconnects: Grover Huffman silver cabling
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Jazz, classical, folk, rock
Room Size (LxWxH): 14 x 12 x 10
Room Comments/Treatments: RoomTune Corner Tunes
Time Period/Length of Audition: Several months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Shunyata Hydra 6
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

Amplifier:	modified Unison Research Unico integrated
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	None
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Rega Planet (original)
Speakers:	Castle Edens
Cables/Interconnects:	Grover Huffman silver cabling
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Jazz, classical, folk, rock
Room Size (LxWxH):	14 x 12 x 10
Room Comments/Treatments:	RoomTune Corner Tunes
Time Period/Length of Audition:	Several months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Shunyata Hydra 6
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner