We've had the P3 RS for almost two months and we wanted to give you a little feedback about how we and our customers are finding it.
You can see the full specs here.
On unboxed we were impressed with the standard of finish and thought the new metalic wrap looked impressive. Different but in keeping of the standard we've come to expect from Rega.
We've seen special edition P3's of course and quite recently. The idea of offering something as a package with a power supply and at an improved price proved popular with customers. This has been the same in the past couple of months. People like the look of it, like the sound of it and think it offers good value for money.
In the demo room the RS performs as you'd expect, which is to say clearly better than the P3 but not quite reaching the performance levels of the P6.
The differences between the two turntables are still quite notable and are easy to hear through a half decent stereo system. For our innitital listening we used a Rega Elex amp and a pair of Dali Oberon 5 floorstanding speakers. Through the system the RS performs very well indeed. However the P6 is more musical, more involving and more detailed.
Rega call a turntable a device for measuring vibration. As you ascend the range you recover more information from the groove and that means more music. You also find that signal to noise ratio also improves, which is particularly good for older vinyl.
This is good for a few of our older records. Sheffield Steel by Joe Cocker and Famous Blue Raincoat by Jennifer Warnes are pefect examples and we've been using them for over thirty years. So they are not perfect. However on both decks we heard a lot of detail and the imperfections were not so bad that they caused any concern. We don't live in a silent world and background noise is everywhere. If you want silence then digital is the way forward. But then you'd miss that wonderful analogue warmth and the engagement of listening to vinyl.
Of course the RS is a wonderful record player and it sets a very high standard but it still does what it is supposed to do; which is to sit between the P3 and the P6 without ruffling any feathers.
Check out some of the What Hi-Fi? review. Interesting but take it with a pinch of salt and come in and listen at your leisure.