Rega’s barely-there turntable promises high-fidelity sound on a budget

British hi-fi brand Rega has launched an entry-level turntable with two things I can get behind: a truly minimalist design and a price that’s about half what you’d pay for the entry-level model in its popular Planar range.

Rega, who has been assembling gear by hand for half a century at this point, has been working on the Replay turntable for the past three years. The result is a unique skeletal design for the socket instead of the usual rectangular approach, and a simple machine that only takes a minute to set up and start enjoying.

The Replay’s compact dimensions are ideal for people who are just getting into hi-fi and haven’t yet cleaned out their entire living room to make room for equipment.

Rega says you can expect “highly detailed, dynamic performance” from the Replay, and you won’t have to worry about balancing the arm or messing with complex connections. That said, it doesn’t feature its own phono stage, so you’ll need to connect it to a properly equipped amplifier via RCA outputs before you can listen to your favorite vinyl.

This is a belt drive manual turntable that plays 33 RPM and 45 RPM records. It shares a lot of features from the brand’s ~$600 Planar 1, such as the quiet 24V motor and phenolic resin platter.

The aluminum arm, which comes with a plug-and-play counterweight for quick setup, and the aligned carbon moving magnet cartridge for high performance out of the box, are also common between these models, and are both made by Rega themselves.

If you’re just getting into vinyl, this could be a good first turntable, as long as you’re okay with incorporating an amplifier into the mix. You’re also giving up the convenience of wireless connectivity, but that could leave you spending more time in the analog world.

We’ve seen some minimalist turntables with low-profile bases recently, and the Replay is right up there with the barely-there models we’ve encountered this year. It is also designed to be accessible for beginners and is quite affordable as far as turntables from established brands go.

The Replay is priced at £259 in the UK and priced at US$395 at US retailer TurntableLab. You can pre-order there and expect yours to ship in December.

See more specifications on the Rega site.

Source: Rega