Turntable Reviews

Rega’s Planar 8 turntable was inspired by the company’s flagship turntable, the Naia. Let me tell you, the Planar 8 is not your grandfather’s Rega — not by a long shot. Developed and engineered to capture, according to Rega, the “essence of Naia at an affordable price,” the Planar 8 is a striking vinyl spinner that struck down my assumptions about lightweight turntables.

The Planar 8 ($4,145) takes the best of Rega’s top-tier Naia (which goes for $12,995) and also pack the company’s years of experience into this resultant turntable — complete with a NEO MK2 power supply and Ania MC cartridge. Not cheap at $4.1K, to be sure, but still far from the Naia’s $13K price point. (If that’s still too much, their P1 is always available, for just $499.)

Specs & Features
The Rega Planar 8 table is supplied with the new RB880 tonearm. The outer frame of the earlier RP8 model has been removed and a new, removable, single-piece, snazzy dustcover has been introduced (see it in place, in the above photo). I’m not a fan of dustcovers, but this one recalls a Bricklin SV-1 sportscar, so sleek and formfitting are its ergonomics.

Other new Planar 8 features include a super-flywheel-effect, triple-layer glass platter, double-brace technology, a Tancast 8 foam-core plinth, dual EBLT drive belts, and finishes including Polaris grey and white, plus a lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects.

Ultra-lightweight Tancast 8 polyurethane foam core was developed for the aerospace industry. In the plinth, it’s sandwiched between two layers of HPL (high-pressure laminate) in the Planar 8. What does this mean for your aching back? Well, the new construction makes the Planar 8’s skeletal plinth 30% lighter than the original RP8, while “offering increased rigidity over the previous model,” as the Rega site boasts. The Planar 8 table weighs a scant 4.4kg — that’s barely 10lb! — and, with the dustcover, it stands 16.5 x 5 x 12.4in (420 x 125 x 315mm), w/h/d.

The Planar 8 plinth is combined with a phenolic resin double-brace mounted specifically where increased rigidity is essential — between the tonearm mounting and the main hub bearing — to aid in a mechanically astute sound assembly. This rigid plinth design reportedly precludes energy absorption and those nasty resonances that mess with your music like Santa juiced on something other than milk and cookies at Christmas.

Rega believe the heavyweight damping approach used in mass-loaded turntables can transfer unwanted energy such as motor or bearing noise directly into the rotating record. While that is no doubt true, I’ve reviewed many mass-loaded turntables, and though my reference Thorens TD 124 table is neither lightweight nor mass-loaded, it’s unbeatable for pure drive and energy, though not that last word in quiet or silent. Every approach has its strengths and weaknesses. The use of a brace in the Planar 8 “allows double thickness phenolic resin in these key areas while providing further weight reduction to the plinth which directly addresses the issue of mass absorption and unwanted energy transmission,” according to the Rega site.

The new RB880 tonearm includes an improved vertical bearing assembly made of aluminum and stainless-steel and uses “our advanced preloaded zero tolerance bearing assembly adjusted to less than 1000th of a millimeter,” states Rega. “This gives friction-free movement and zero levels of unwanted play.” The RB880 is terminated with a low capacitance phono cable with locking phono plugs.

The new Rega ELBT belts are from a bespoke rubber compound. “Using a specialized curing system, the new drive belt offers superior consistency of modulus, a constant representing the degree to which a substance has a particular property, especially elasticity,” again from the Rega site. The belts are “perfectly round,” the site also notes.

The Planar 8 uses a single-piece, machined aluminum subplatter and a hardened, tool-steel spindle running inside a brass housing mounted within the chassis. Again, it’s all about reducing potential energy transfer. A three-piece, laminated glass platter is constructed from two different glasses from Pilkington, a subsidiary of Japanese company Nippon Sheet Glass.

As noted, mass damping is taboo for Rega, as it doesn’t comport with their “lighter is better” esthetic. But they believe extra mass in the turntable platter is what helps achieve a constant rotational speed. Rega aims to keep as much of the mass to the outside rim of the platter to create a flywheel effect while keeping the inside of the platter as light as possible.

The Planar 8’s motor-mounting technique is taken from the Rega Naiad, claimed to remove all stress on the motor body. Each motor is “hand-tuned to match its own custom Neo power supply before fitting to the turntable to optimize the anti-vibration circuit.”

The DSP generator used in the Neo MkII power supply is said to “produce a near-perfect sinusoidal waveform to drive the motor.” Rega claims a 24V, AC-balanced signal of less than 0.15% distortion, unaffected by any changes in the mains/line voltage and conditions.

Setup
My system for this review included the Allnic Audio H-5500 phono preamp I reviewed here on AP earlier this week (on September 23, 2025), a Sugden LA-4 preamp, Elekit TU-8888 tubed monoblock amps, DeVore Fidelity Super Nine gibbon loudspeakers, and Voxativ Ampeggio loudspeakers. Various cabling from Darwin, AudioQuest, and Auditorium 23 were deployed, and line conditioning was performed by AudioQuest and IsoTek. [Update, 09.29.2025: And yes, for those of you who have already asked, I did indeed use the supplied platter mat.]

And here I thought the Denon DP-3000NE turntable (which I reviewed here back on September 2, 2025) was an easy setup. The Rega Planar 8 is so simple to set up and so accommodating in its ability to get up and running quickly, it’s practically a revolution — and I hadn’t even played a record on it yet!

The Planar 8 package consists of the turntable, hardwired interconnects, and the aforementioned power cord that attaches to the power supply. A plug of Styrofoam is removed from beneath the tonearm, along with some blue tape that keeps the arm secured to the cueing base during shipping. The glass platter slid over the spindle. The cart was pre-aligned from the factory but upon inspection it was off, as noted by my Feickert Universal Protractor. Thus, I corrected it. I slid the counterweight over the tonearm, and, using the arm’s side-mounted dial, quickly established vertical tracking force. The Planar 8’s three large feet are non-adjustable; I used shims. And that’s it. I was basically up and running in 15 minutes.

After a brief break-in, the Planar 8 table sounded off. Despite its extremely low noise floor — a quiet comfort that created a singular, deep-sea-black background — the sound was cool and uninvolving. In Living Stereo’s Steve Cohen, a veteran of hundreds of Rega setups, suggested, “Regas don’t like MDF shelves,” so, first, I put small mahogany blocks under the Rega’s feet, and that made the sound fuller. Then I switched to cork and rubber squares, which added warmth while keeping the table’s tight timing and quiet background.

Listening Sessions
Records spun for this review included the 1965 hard-bop compilation, Hard Cookin’ (Prestige PRST 7342), McCoy Tyner’s 1967 classic The Real McCoy (Blue Note BST 84264), Faces’ November 1971 LP A Nod Is as Good as a Wink. . . to a Blind Horse (Warner Bros. BS 2574), Roxy Music’s sleek May 1982 effort Avalon (EG 1-23686), FKA Twigs’ August 2014 debut LP1 (Young Turks YTLP118), Arnett Cobb’s November 1960 LP Ballads by Cobb (Moodsville MVLP 14), The Allman Brothers Band’s perennial September 1970 classic Idlewild South (ATCO SD 33-342), and Roger Sessions’ 1959 masterstroke The Black Maskers (Mercury Living Presence SR90103).

As noted, Hard Cookin’ is sort of a hard-bop sampler, with a cast well-known to anyone who enjoys Prestige, Riverside, or Jazzland releases featuring hard-driving drums, fiery trumpets, and boozy saxophones. The Planar 8 quantified this record like a man shoveling fuel into a coal oven. Pure sunshowers exemplified by torrid trumpets so hot they scalded my senses. Drums so cooking, forward racing, and hard swinging, I had to get out of the way, lest I catch fire myself. The Rega table released notes in such a fury of pent-up treble to midrange action, it was visceral, pealing, and tense, with separation and air to surround and frame every rhythm quake. This Rega table is one of the finest rhythm-and-swing machines I’ve ever heard.

On the downside, this is not the weightiest-sounding table. But with so much hot treble and midrange sorcery correlating to the listener, and being entirely taken by the energy and fever of the music, it more than acquits itself. When a record did have serious bass, due to its low noise floor, the Rega certainly resolved it, surprisingly so at times. But it lacks the weight and the warmth from the ground up that I’ve heard in mass-loaded turntables. The Planar 8’s personality is all about heat, burn, flying, and sailing — and not “trudging across the tundra, mile after mile,” to quote Frank Zappa, from his mighty and mirthful “St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast” (from, in case you’re wondering, Frank’s masterful March 1974 solo LP, Apostrophe (’)). The Planar 8 is a detail-resolving beast, an action machine worthy of its own suspense thriller, a turntable that shouts fun! from every pore.

I also wrote down in my notes that the Planar 8 table had “popping rhythmic power, great imaging, every detail dealt with strong sense of sustain and decent tone,” and “the ability to extract every note from rock, jazz, and classical recordings.”

The Planar 8’s joy in digging deep was in full force on The Real McCoy, with pianist Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones, and saxophonist Joe Henderson revealed practically as active combatants with nothing left to the imagination. I can’t remember that last time I heard Elvin Jones’ drums portrayed in all their rumbling, cacophonic, hard-swinging joy.

Roxy Music’s Avalon came across as pale and puny — but that’s the record, not the Planar 8, which is itself a truth teller, laying out a recording’s production with little-to-zero romance. Some people want a sappy, sensuous, romantic machine — this is not it. The Planar 8 goes for the jugular, so hold on for the ride.

The Allmans’ Idlewild South stalwart opener “Revival” (Side One, Track 1) was laid out like a grid of complementary sounds via the Planar 8, with every note, image, musician, and strike assembled in a beautifully clean, clear, widespan stage. Music was vibrant, punchy, bruising, and satisfactory, leaving me in holy high ground — pure southern rock heaven.

The table’s ability to portray a massive soundstage heaving with energy was confirmed on the Roger Sessions disc. But instead of electric guitars and choogling drums, the Planar 8 resolved all the nuance, subtlety, and grandeur of this outstanding orchestral performance.

Conclusions
The Rega Planar 8 turntable is a masterclass in modern industrial design — bold, striking, and effortlessly elegant. It radiates innovation, blending cutting-edge aesthetics with sonic ambition. It’s a true standout.

Let’s not mince words. This Rega turntable attacked each record with electrifying energy — controlled chaos, nail-biting drive, and a dynamic range that hit like a nuclear warhead blasting from its silo. Track after track, it unearthed layers of detail, ambient textures, and spatial depth, revealing music in striking three-dimensional relief.

The Rega Planar 8 is an incredible vibration-measuring machine. It’s one of the few times a turntable so completely convinced me of its rhythmic prowess that was undeniable. Each record was a new land to explore, with fresh details unearthed, and new energy unleashed. All of it was allied to a wide soundstage that enveloped and engaged me. In short, the Rega Planar 8 turntable is a triumph of modern turntable wizardry — and it is wholly worthy of your full, rapt attention.

For more about Rega, go here.
To find an authorized Rega retailer in the United States, go here.
To find Rega’s authorized global distributors, go here.