⌈ REGA was founded in 1973. Its name honors its two founders, Tony Relph and Roy Gandy (RElph & GAndy). Roy is now the company owner and managing director. Rega specializes in manufacturing turntables that have made it popular. For years, however, it has offered electronics and speakers. We are testing its latest NAIA turntable. ⌋

HAT? ALMOST 50 GRAND for something like this?!" is a question that I heard quite a few times during this year's Audio Video Show 2023, where I used this very model while conducting the workshop entitled Test Press – WTF (more in the editorial of the November HF issue).

The question was about the latest turntable from the British firm Rega, which is also the most expensive one in the company's regular lineup. A legitimate question insofar as it is the smallest and lightest turntable offered by this manufacturer. From under the white platter you can see almost nothing, except for a short (also white) "bridge" that connects the main bearing and the arm, and a section of the plinth under which one of the three feet on which the Naia stands is screwed in.

The question makes sense, because other manufacturers go in exactly the opposite direction, striving for as much weight and size as possible. However, if we are familiar with the company and understand its approach to turntable design, Naia will prove to be the arrival point of a process that began a long time ago,the turning point of which was a project called Naiad. Roy Gandy, the head of the company, wanted to prepare a turntable for himself that would reflect all his aspirations and ideas of the last fifty years. He started his work on the project by minimizing, not maximizing. We mentioned this when presenting the Planar 10 model, but it is time to repeat the story.

▌ Naiad

In 2007, the REGA company recorded, absolutely unexpectedly, a twofold increase in turnover. As Bill Philpot writes in his monograph, A vibration measuring machine, a team of managers then gathered at Temple Farm, the company's headquarters, to consider what to do in this surprising situation (p. 138). Roy then proposed preparing new versions of existing models.

The problem was that Rega was a kind of an "outsider." As Philpot writes, Roy's ideas were so different from what other manufacturers were doing that he had no one to talk to about them. Another big obstacle was that Rega had been self-sufficient up to that point, and everything it designed came directly from it.

The solution came from Phil Freeman, now CEO of Rega Research, who decided to learn everything Roy knew about turntables so that he could be an equal partner to him. After months of listening and discussing things together, Phil proposed to design something without looking at the cost. Thus the "Naiad" project was born, the most expensive and advanced turntable in Rega's history.

Although originally only one unit was to be made, some components that the company could not produce in house had to be ordered in quantities of 50 units. That's why the Naiad turntable is available in a limited number of fifty units, at nearly £30,000 each, most of them already sold.

The most important innovation was abandoning the classic plinth in favor of a skeletal one, made of Rohacell foam covered with carbon fiber, with ceramic inserts binding the arm and the main bearing. As Gandy always says, the plinth should be as light and as rigid as possible.

The aim is to minimize vibration transfer from the main bearing, the motor and the air, and to prevent the accumulation of energy in the structure of the turntable, for the energy is transferred back to the needle with a delay, though with less amplitude. This leads, he adds, to blurring the signal. Rigidity, in turn, is responsible for the "structural integrity" of both the plinth and the components connected to it – the arm and the main bearing.

The Naiad turntable has become a benchmark for Roy and for the company's designers, a product that is said to be the "bench-test", i.e. one on which all new developments are tested. It's a design that is "transparent" to change, so that any modification is easy to measure and hear. A design of this type must be, as the measurement theory assumes, at least one order of magnitude more neutral than the component being measured.

▌ Naia

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT and best ideas in audio in general is signal amplification using electron tubes. Among them, the most important circuit is SET, i.e., one with a single triode at the output ("single-ended triode"). This type of circuit is characterized by incredible simplicity – it's literally a few capacitors and resistors, a tube, an output transformer and a power supply. To further minimize the number of variables, printed circuit boards and even mounting bridges are often dispensed with, with components soldered directly to tube plinths.

Can you see where I am going? Subtraction is a noble endeavor in audio. Just like in art, Rega is all about capturing details to bring out the essence of a given object as well as possible. Common knowledge among amplifier designers, to return to this subcategory for a moment, is that we correct the errors of a given gain stage with the next stage. In the process, however, we kill the energy of the signal, even though we improve its other parameters. It is possible to preserve this energy, but the shorter the signal path, the more difficult it is to correct errors and the better each successive section must be. The same is true for turntables. The Naiad model, and now its commercial version, the Naia, were built with this in mind.

⸜ THE PLINTH • Similarly to Planar 10, Naia is an ultra lightweight turntable. This has been achieved by eliminating a classic plinth and leaving only its "skeleton", i.e., the connections between the bearing, arm and legs. This solution can be found in the Planar 8 and Planar 10 models, but in the Naia model it is taken to the maximum.

We find the following information on the manufacturer's website:

The Naia takes our pioneering low mass high rigidity plinth technology to the next level by using a Graphene impregnated carbon fibre skeletal plinth with Tancast 8 foam core. This ultra rigid structure is then strengthened further using two ceramic aluminium oxide braces, the same material used to create the redesigned, resonance controlled ceramic platter with improved flywheel effect and complex profile.

⸜ → www.REGA.co.uk, accessed: 23.11.2023

THE MATERIAL THAT NAIA'S PLINTH IS MADE OF was developed in preparation of the Naiad model – it later migrated to cheaper turntables. It is a structure consisting of a filling and outer layers (in the Naiad, the filling is completely enclosed by an outer shell). It is extremely rigid, and mechanically stable over time. The lightweight infill is provided by a polyurethane foam originally developed for the aerospace industry, bearing the commercial name Tancast 8.

As we wrote, Tancast is a collective name for foams with different densities and thus different mechanical properties. The version used by Rega is called Tancast 8 and was chosen for its vibration-damping properties – it is the lowest density version. It is easily machined, allowing small prototypes to be made, which is why it is readily used in the modeling industry. As its manufacturer writes, "during machining, the fine structure of the foam is exposed, and dimensions can be measured with the accuracy of +/- 0.1 mm (+/- 0.004 inches)."

In the cheaper Regi models, the upper and lower layer of the plinth are made of high-pressure laminate (HPL). In Naia they use an even more rigid and lighter material, namely a graphene-saturated carbon fiber braid. This results in an even lighter weight at a similar size. The connection problem between the main bearing and the arm was solved in a similar way. One of the most important decisions of a designer regarding a turntable is how to make this connection more rigid – when reducing the weight of the plinth, the problem is to increase its rigidity. So, in all contemporary Rega models you will find something like a "bridge" between these two elements. It looks like a span, quite wide, with holes cut in the middle to reduce its weight. This design is called DB (Double Brace Technology) in the company's terminology.

Although the same everywhere, it varies in terms of the materials used, depending on which model we are talking about. The first turntable on Rega's price list in which we find this solution is the Planar 3. The beam we are talking about in it is made of 3 mm phenolic laminate covered with a layer of aluminum. In the Planar 10 model, the upper beam is replaced by a very rigid ceramic element, and in the tested Naia turntable both the upper and lower beams are ceramic.

The turntable stands on three feet. Cheaper models use rubber or rubber-aluminum feet with a simple design, while here the feet are all-aluminum with a small rubber insert at the bottom. The feet are also "skeletal", as the turntable itself. It's a lightweight shell with minimal "bridges" between the bottom and the turntable.

⸜ THE PLATTER • The Naiad was the first turntable from this manufacturer to use not a glass platter, but a ceramic sintered one. In the process of production, ceramic oxide powder is pressed, fired and cut with diamond. The platter has been made to be lightweight and to achieve a flywheel effect at the same time. Its main part is therefore thin, but it thickens at the perimeter, in a specially developed profile, giving higher mass where it is needed most. Its latest version has a modified design with improved coupling to the sub-platter. The platter is familiar to us from the Planar 10 model, with a white felt mat applied to the top – very thin here.

One of the most important innovations to be found in the Naia, which is known only from the Rega Naiad, is the main bearing made of ZTA. This is a composite ceramic material doped with aluminum and zirconium (ZTA - Zirconium Toughened Alumina). According to the manufacturer, in the past this type of solutions were used in much larger and heavier machines, for example in the paper industry:

Exceptionally complex to make, production is similar to other oxide ceramics. Starting life as a powder preparation with spray drying, the piece is formed in an isostatic press (which applies pressure in all directions to create even density). The piece is then turned in a green state (before firing) then fired at 1600 °C for 3 days before grinding the bottom flange and bore before final honing to match the spindle diameter. The spindle and bearing are then kept together as a set to guarantee the perfect fit.

⸜ Ibid.

ZTA is more resistant to abrasive wear and extremely hard, and both the spindle and the bearing are made of identical material. This reduces the risk of uneven wear, Rega says, because they have identical hardness. The spindle runs on an ultra-thin layer of fully synthetic oil, which has a "positive effect on service life." The result of this complex engineering process is, it reads, "the toughest, most accurate and most durable bearing unit we have ever produced."

The same material is also used for the axle on which the platter is placed. Like the platter, it is white in color. As an aside, I would add that it gets covered with black tarnish from the platters quite quickly. However, this can be easily washed off – I used a solution applied to cleaning glasses for this purpose. The assembly is unusually mounted on the underside to eliminate parasitic energy transmitted or stored in the plinth.

A one-piece machined aluminum sub-platter is set on the bearing. All sub-platters in Rega products are circular, except for the Naiad model where it is triangular. In the tested turntable it is also unusual, as it is hexagonal in shape and has milled slots to reduce its weight. Interestingly, the platter does not lie flat on it, but rests on tabs. Do you remember the first turntable from this manufacturer, the Planet model? It was revolutionary, as the platter rested on only a few points. The idea was to minimize energy transfer – it seems similar here.

⸜ THE DRIVE • As in the Planar 10, the motor here is also mounted with a new technique developed for the Naiad model. It's a 24-volt synchronous (AC) motor. It is manufactured specifically for Rega and has twelve, rather than the usual eight sections, which improves rotational precision. Rega has also mastered a technique that helps dampen motor vibrations almost completely. It relies on the fact that the power supplies provide voltage separately for the two phases – these voltages are synchronized, so that the circuit stays balanced.

Naia has not one, not two, but as many as three drive belts. In the Planar 10 model there were two, and in cheaper models there is one. Regi's drive belt is produced using a special manufacturing technique and bears the company's name EBLT Reference. It was first used in the 2021 Planar 8 and Planar 10 models, and is made on precision machines, the creation of which, according to the manufacturer, was inspired by collaboration with a manufacturer of parts for Formula 1 engines.

Why not one belt? It's always a compromise between coupling the motor and platter axles and decoupling them. Double and triple belts reduce the effect of sound sway and improve speed stability, but also increase the noise created when the belt slips over the motor and sub-platter axles and make motor damping less effective. The chosen compromise depends on the designer. Three belts are probably used because these are the "quietest" motor and power supply the company has ever produced.

The motor of the Naia model is powered by a new Reference PSU. Its enclosure is vibration-proof and looks similar to those used by Rega in its amplifiers. Voltage is generated in it by means of a DSP circuit with, in Rega's words, "precise clocking" that generates a "near-perfect sine wave."

⸜ THE ARM • The arm that the tested turntable comes with is called the RB Titanium. Rega says it is the most advanced and most accurate turntable arm it has ever produced. Such a statement coming from one of the most experienced arm manufacturers in the world is really important.

It appears to be based on the RB3000 arm from the Planar 10, with the entire structure designed to minimize the number of connections, while using the most rigid materials in all critical parts. The manufacturer declares that friction in the RB Titanium arm is close to zero, both horizontally and vertically, and on top of that "there is no measurable play in the bearing assemblies." A new one-piece titanium vertical bearing and titanium vertical spindle assembly were made specifically for it. The tube appears similar to the RB3000 and is made of hand-polished aluminum to keep weight as low as possible.

Rega's arms are set up a bit differently than classic ones, because they use dynamic needle pressure. The idea is that it should not change with the waviness of the record or even the needle itself but should be constant. So, first you level the arm with a weight on the axle until it is in balance, and then use the knob on the arm itself to set the pressure. The mandrel along which the counterweight is guided, as well as the counterweight itself, are made of tungsten. You won't find VTA adjustment here – Roy Gandy considers this problem much exaggerated, and in the company's monograph Paul Messenger discusses the technical justification for this position. Gandy believes that it is better to make a stable mechanical arm than to adjust its height according to the thickness of the record.

Signal is brought out to the outside by interconnects integrated into the arm wiring. The idea is not to create additional solder points in the circuit. The cables look ordinary, though they are solid and thick. Rega used to use cables from the German company Klotz, which specializes in products for the professional market. Those used today look similar, so perhaps they are prepared for the British company in the OEM system. Typically for this manufacturer, and unusually for others, we do not have a separate ground cable – it is connected to the signal ground.

⸜ THE CARTRIDGE • We can order the turntable without a cartridge or with the top cartridge from this manufacturer – the Aphelion 2. Aphelion 2 is an MC cartridge. It has an extremely low mass generator and is interesting insofar as it is not damped, i.e., there is no wire attached to the needle to control its vibration (the so-called "tie wire"). Conventional cartridges with a damping wire show a large resonance at 8-12 kHz, which needs to be damped, usually with rubber or just a wire. However, this has the disadvantage of reducing the speed of response.

The fine-line ground needle is mounted on a boron boom fixed at the support point by an element with an octagonal bore, made especially for Rega. The system is equipped with very strong neodymium magnets, which the company says are "the strongest miniature neodymium magnets in the world." The coil is hand-wound on an iron yoke. According to the manufacturer, weight reduction allows more freedom in tracking the groove. The winding wire is only 0.018 mm thick.

The drive motor of the Aphelion 2 cartridge is attached to a one-piece anodized aluminum body and is protected by a CAD-designed yellow rigid cover that protects the thin wires. The pressure is set similarly to that of the Aphelion 3, which is slightly higher than in Rega's cheaper cartridges, at 1.9-2 g. The internal impedance is 10 Ω, and the output voltage is 350 μV. Along with the cartridge, we get a great wide nimbus torque wrench (0.4 N) to screw it in precisely.

▌ THE LISTENING SESSION

⸜ THE WAY WE LISTENED • The Rega Naia turntable was tested in the HIGH FIDELITY reference system. It stood on the carbon fiber top shelf of the Finite Elemente Master Reference Pagode Edition Mk II rack. I used DS Audio ST-50, a solidified gel, to clean the needle.

During my tests, I treated the Rega turntable as a complete system, that is, I listened to it with a factory-installed cartridge. I used the external phono preamplifier RCM Audio Sensor Prelude IC, from which the signal was transmitted forward by the Crystal Cable Absolute Dream interconnect. I placed the Verictum X-Block passive filter on the power supply, and the active Nordost QPOINT circuit on the preamplifier (test → HERE). I conducted a separate listening session with the Mola Mola Lupe preamp.

» Albums used in the test | a selection

⸜ JULIE LONDON, Julie is her name. Vol. 1, Liberty Records LPR 3006, LP (1995).
⸜ BENNY GOODMAN ORCHESTRA, Benny Goodman Orchestra Feat. Anita O'Day, Jazzhaus 101704, seria „Bigbands Live”, 2 x 180 g LP (2011/2013).
⸜ FRANK SINATRA, Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra, 70th Anniversary Edition, Columbia/Impex Records IMP6036, 180 g LP (1950/2020).
⸜ BENNY CARTER, Jazz Giant, Contemporary Records/Analogue Productions AJAZ 7555, „Top 100 Jazz, 45 RPM Limited Edition #0404”, 2 x 180 g, 45 rpm LP (1958/?).
⸜ DIANA KRALL, This Dream Of You, Verve Records B0032520, Test Press LP (2020).
⸜ ANDREAS VOLLENWEIDER, Caverna Magica (...Under The Tree - In The Cave...), CBS 25 265, „Halfspeed Mastered”, LP (1982/1983).
⸜ BRENDAN PERRY, Ark, Cooking Vinyl/Vinyl 180 VIN180LP040, 2 x 180 g (2011).
⸜ THE BEATLES, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Apple/Gold Note DT-01, „Limited Edition No. 82/500”, 180 g LP (1967/2016).
⸜ SKALPEL, Transit, PlugAudio PL02, 2 x 180 g LP (2014).

»«

"HMMM, THIS IS NOT SIMPLY a better Planar 10" – I thought and started worrying a little. Immediately afterwards it came to my mind: "It's a completely different sound." I was worried because I am a huge fan of Rega's classic sound. If I could characterize it in a few words, it would be a reference to the natural warmth of instruments, a lack of aggression, dense sound and high resolution. And here there was something that seemed completely different to me.

The first CD I listened to was the original release of JULIE LONDON's album entitled Julie is Her Name. Vol. 1.. This title was released in 1955, first in a mono version – and that's how I listened to it. It's dark, dense sound and only two sound sources: vocals and a guitar played by Berney Kessel. I'm used to the fact that this is how this album sounds, that it has sharply lowered tonal balance and that it's not particularly open.

And Naia played it quickly, dynamically and energetically. I guess it was this clash between my listening habit and the completely different world of Rega's top turntable that threw me off balance so much. I will admit to you that I was so confused that I put off listening for a whole day, thinking what to do with all this, until I remembered that the Japanese reissue of this album on HQCD, which I also like, has completely different tonal balance and energy, and that Naia showed the LP in just such a way.

When the other day I listened, from the beginning of page A to the end of page D, to the recording of the concert given by BENNY GOODMAN with his orchestra at the Stadthalle Freiburg on September 15, 1959, where the wonderful ANITA O'DAY sang, I began to understand what it was all about. And when I allowed myself to change my mind, I couldn't believe that just a day earlier this sound had seemed bright to me. Yes, even then its resolution was shocking, and its energy was incredible. Color, however, is for me the key to full, comfortable reception of music. Any deviation in the direction of the upper range is therefore disqualifying for me.

Fast forward. A few days later, I repeated the experience with Goodman's CD. I'm telling you, it sounded great! The Naia, listened to without strain and without trying to compare it to anything, turns out to play big and incredibly resolving sound with large-volume instruments. At the same time, the sound is perfectly, even exceptionally coherent and smooth.

I checked it out with FRANK SINATRA's Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra album, wonderfully released in 2020 by Impex Records. It is a monophonic recording with sessions from the years 1949-1950 (and additional ones from the year 1951), originally issued on 10” vinyl. The Rega turntable showed Sinatra's vocals precisely in front of me, and instruments behind it, within subsequent planes. On the one hand, it was classic for this period of Sinatra's career: an energetic, still youthful voice, but on the other hand there was the confidence and perfection with which the artist "bought" everyone and which made him an icon of this type of music for years.

The turntable played it in an incredibly resolving and at the same time neutral way. And I guess it was the latter, this "neutrality", that initially deceived me, because turntables from this manufacturer prefer naturalness over neutrality. The Naia – and this is key – has it all, as it is both neutral and natural. However, while cheaper models arrive at neutrality from the naturalness side, the tested Rega turntable has it right away, without "arriving" from either side.

All of the records I have referred to so far are mono recordings. It was with such material that I could appreciate the very, very stable sound of the turntable. I have experienced something similar in my system only a few times in my life, with very heavy and very large designs. It's something that is easier to perceive than to describe, and that is the elimination of those elements of the musical message that blur the image of what is in front of us. And it's not just about the precision of showing phantom images, although this is also an important clue, but about something a level, maybe even two levels higher.

And what was very good in the mono recordings was even more pronounced in stereo ones. Remaining in the 1950s, I listened to a reissue of BENNY CARTER's album entitled Jazz Giant by Analogue Productions on two 45 rpm discs. This is an incredible recording of Roy DuNann in the best version I know, including the original. With the Naia turntable, its sound was dynamic, very "here and now". But it didn't impose itself at all, it didn't jump out in front of the speakers, as it sometimes does.

I remember listening to this album during a meeting of the Krakow Sonic Society with the J. Sikora Reference turntable, and I also remember that some listeners were a bit overwhelmed by this sound (more → HERE). With the Regi turntable there was nothing of the sort. On the one hand, it is because it is a tiny turntable after all, and Janusz Sikora's design is capable of building remarkably succinct and palpable sound, but on the other hand the reason is that the small turntable perfectly balances closeness with distance, and tangibility with perspective.

This is a turntable with beautiful color and an amazing ability to build dynamics, from tiny events to massive blows. There are no "thuds" here – something that is probably impossible to achieve without a lot of weight. On the other hand, however, you don't miss them at all. It's a finished, polished proposition that lacks nothing in its world, not only with sophisticated analog recordings from decades ago, but also with contemporary ones. DIANA KRALL, recorded digitally and played from the Test Press album This Dream of You, had fantastic swing, fluidity, and her vocals were big, steady, but not TOO big.

Every time I put another record on the Rega's turntable white platter, I knew I would not be disappointed – not because the turntable makes albums similar and masks their flaws, as it doesn't. This electromechanical device has the uncanny ability to show us the truth about a recording, but in such a way that it is not punishment for us, but a reward, so we can listen to any music with full confidence that we want to, and not that we have to do it./p>

In addition to the simultaneously neutral and natural color, incredible microdynamics and energy, this is helped by the almost complete absence of shift noise and crackle. These, of course, are present somewhere underneath – vinyl is, after all, an incredibly flawed medium in this regard. The flaws are, however, so perfectly damped that we think they aren't there. The damping of fast, extra-musical information is the property of mechanically very complex and large turntables.

This is the first time I've heard something like this from a lightweight turntable. And even the Planar 10, which is excellent in this respect, seems a bit warmed from the perspective of the Naia – specifically to mask the mechanical form of reading information from the LP. The tested Rega turntable doesn't warm anything, yet the distortions in question are one or maybe even two levels lower with it. This comes in handy with recordings where silence is one of the mood-building elements, such as Caverna Magica (...Under the Tree - in the Cave...) by ANDREAS VOLLENWEIDER.

Originally released in 1982, it received the "Half Speed" master a year later and was pressed in the Netherlands. This is, in my opinion, its best version. When the couple scrubs their feet on the pebbles in front of the cave, when the sound later opens up inside it, something there gently crackles, something rustles – this is normal; after all, my copy is already forty (!) years old. The artifacts I'm talking about, however, were minimal and really didn't distract me from the story unfolding before me.

And the story unfolded both linearly, as a tale of a couple who discover magic, but also horizontally in space, so to speak. The change in acoustics we are dealing with is spectacular, which is why over the years this album has been one of the most frequent "guests" at audio exhibitions. The Rega Naia showed this space in a spectacular way. It turned out that it draws a very, very deep stage that also extends wide behind the speakers, in a richly resonant semi-circle.

Unlike cheaper turntables from this manufacturer, it doesn't build the sound close to us, but rather behind the line connecting the speakers. This is why, I think, I was so confused at the beginning of listening. The space is large also because the bass of this turntable is saturated and powerful. Short rather than fully saturated, if you know what I mean. Records built on bass, like BRENDAN PERRY's Ark, are fantastic in their ambience. But we need to know that it is controlled atmosphere, fastened with a kind of "safety pin" protecting the sound from becoming too random and falling outside the "picture".

▌ Conclusions

THE SKALPEL DUO HAS JUST RELEASED their new album Origins, but I keep on returning to Transit, maybe because I have it autographed by Igor Pudło and Marcin Cichy, or maybe because I have burned it into my head through repeated listening. Its playback on the Rega Naia turntable was as enjoyable and satisfying as Frank Sinatra's 1950 record. It was satisfying, let me add, .

For the British design is an extremely versatile turntable. It shows a dynamic and energetic world, with a wide bandwidth. But there is nothing in this sound that forces us to do anything, nor is there a shadow of nervousness. And yet we know, we know very well, that this is very resolving and neutral sound. The differentiation between albums is excellent, but it occurs at the level of dynamics, color and expression, not brightness, thinness, or flatness. This is a powerful difference.

In doing so, the turntable draws a huge soundstage in every dimension. However, it doesn't adorn it with intricate details, nor does it accentuate the sound attack. It lets it unfold and fade out gently, making it seem that the attack phase is smoothed out. This may, in fact, be the case, although I'm not 100% sure.

In contemporary releases, such as the aforementioned Skalpel, or Diana Krall, this has an effect similar to throwing away the artifacts of digital production, while with analog, high-end pressings, be it Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, or the very cool version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by THE BEATLES, it opens up an infinite, continuous perspective within which we get dense, succinct and differentiated instruments and vocals.

The Rega Naia summarizes the fifty years of the company's operation incredibly well and duly crowns its 50th anniversary. It’s beautiful! ●

THIS TEST HAS BEEN DESIGNED ACCORDING TO THE GUIDELINES adopted by the Association of International Audiophile Publications, an international audio press association concerned with ethical and professional standards in our industry, of which HIGH FIDELITY is a founding member. More about the association and its constituent titles → HERE.

→ www.AIAP-online.org