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In Reply to: REVIEW: Rega P3 2000 Turntables posted by Don T on April 29, 2007 at 23:07:38:
The next P3 should be with us in May.Thanks for the review.
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MK 24... puts Rambo and even Rocky to shame!
Thanks for your very nice review. I agree with everything you say except the following. With a DV 20XH and an ARC PH5 phono stage playing through Vandersteen 5 speakers, I get a wonderfully deep and wide soundstage with great air around the instruments. Though I don't care that much about accurate imaging, I have it to a high degree. Also, I don't find it the least bit lacking in bass, but the support it sits on is all-important, as you say. I worked hard on the support.The P3 is what brought me back to vinyl. As you have, I have compared it to TTs costing far more and have yet to have any urge to make a change. For some reason, it gets bad-mouthed a lot around here, but I think anyone who has heard it set up properly with a good cartridge in a good system would come to similar conclusions that you and I have. I will say it isn't much to look at and appear a bit on the flimsy side, but that doesn't matter to me. It's worked flawlessly for three-plus years I've had it.
My criticisms about the Planar 3 / P3 are made mostly from comparisons with vinyl systems costing much more.As far as the imagine/soundstaging issue goes it's not a high priority with me. I never have considered evaluating those things a high priority so, like I said in the review, it could be that it's my other gear that leads me to that conclusion. I don't know and I'll take your word for for the P3's performance in that area. Though it's clear to me it's not up to the standard set by my previous Sota Sapphire or my Roksan Xerxes DX2.
Yesterday I was listening to my recently acquired Raysonic CD128 ($1800 retail) - totally amazed and blown away with how well it worked in my newly updated second system. After a couple a CDs I put on an LP on the P3/103/pp2 combo and my first thought was the CDP sounded much better than the P3. Well heck I thought the CDP does cost twice as much as the whole vinyl rig! After my second LP I concluded the P3 was was as musically involving and good sounding as the CDP. This is how my analog v. digital conclusions have been going now for some years - which ever one I listen to last is usually the best - and switching media does require a short period of transition. That being said I can get more from my P3 - planning on a new phono section and a new cartridge within the next couple of months.
I have an Ayre CX-7e, which goes for a list of around $3K. My P3 + DV 20XH + ARC PH5 cost in total about the same. The CX-7e is superb. I have only heard one CD player that I liked better, and it cost more than $40K; it certainly wasn't that much better.For me, the CD vs. vinyl comparison is completely a function of the quality of the recorded material. The very best CDs and the very best vinyl both sound superb, and I'm not sure I would pick one over the other as being my favorite, though they do sound different by nature. The problem for me is that CDs of the highest quality are far rarer than vinyl recordings with excellent sound. I am only talking about classical music here. Simply put, the quality of the production of most classical CDs out there leaves a lot to be desired, but there are many fine vinyl recordings from the mid 50s and on, and they are real treasures. I believe the problem with the sound of most CDs is not the RBCD standard, but how they are produced and mastered.
Joe
with your comments about the sound of LPs snf the sound of the CDs both being capable of sounding really good and with your comments on the importance of production and mastering.Both my CDPs, the Exposure XX3 and the Raysonic CD128 costed me around $1500. I enjoyed the heck out of a $300 NAD 521 BEE! The entry level admission to good CD sound is much lower than for vinyl.
I had an AR phono section at home when I was building the main - of course though I chose the similarly priced Exposure which worked best with that system (almost exclusively Exposure gear), my main, which is with the SP100s and now is in my bedroom.
I'm not ready to spend $2K on a phono section for the system the Rega is in so I'm going to give the Dynavector phono pre a try.
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