An extended review of the Rega P5

[Puma Cat]

Thanks, GrooveTracer makes really fine products. I'm friends with the sole owner/fabricator, Frank. He works in the aerospace machine shop industry; the Groovetracer biz is a sideline...you should see what he's capable of doing for his aerospace clients. He made his own TT himself, and it was a very impressive design.

[watercourse]

I'm one of Frank's biggest fans, and got a couple of one-offs from him: brass colored extra heavy inserts for my counterweight, and a white Delrin platter, which btw is kick ass and IMHO as good an upgrade as the subplatter (and much better to my ears than the acrylic version).

[Puma Cat]

Interesting. I've been thinking of trying the Delrin platter. I tried the acrylic platter on my Planar 3, and returned it as I thought the stock platter sounded better; the acrylic platter smeared the upper bass/lower mids detail, I thought. I'm convinced one of the reasons Clearaudio's Concept is as good as it is is because of the Delrin platter. It's interesting they have moved completely away from acrylic to Delrin for all their new models.

May have to give the Delrin platter a try. What Rega do you have?

[watercourse]

All-black P5, but modded with an Incognito rewire, the Riggle VTAF, and the Michael Lim motor isolation base. Haven't regretted a single tweak/mod. Currently running a Shelter 501.

[Puma Cat]

Not familiar with the Riggle or the Michael Lim, have to look into those.

The Shelter 501 works GREAT on the P5; some serious synergy there.

I'm presently running a Sumiko Pearwood Celebration II MC through a Bob's Devices Step Up tx into the EAR 324. It's d**n good-sounding combo...

[watercourse]

I was looking into the Bob's - which version did you get?

[Puma Cat]

The SUT with the red label Cinemag transformers, this was before he had the blue label ones were available...love to have the blue ones as they are more transparent, but the red label ones are impressive on their own. Great value for money. BTW, the Bob's really took the 501 to a whole new level.

[watercourse]

My phono stage bottoms out at a loading of 100 ohms, and I've heard the Shelters loaded at 50 ohms at a buddy's place sounding a bit more full. That would be one advantage I can see in using a SUT, and am interested in investigating this.

[Puma Cat]

Well, you can't go wrong at the price. I bought the 1:16/1:30 version with Cinemag tx's.

I ran the Shelter at 1:16 and it was markedly improved in it's performance, much more fleshed out, sweeter top end and notably improved bass performance.

[watercourse]

Sold! ;-)