Rega System One Review

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However, compatibility and synergy could be best with a system from one manufacturer. With the Rega System One, this is most definitely the case. Featuring sturdy, handmade products, the Rega System One is easy to set up, use, and delivers superb sound.

The Rega System One impressed me with the easy musical authority it presented. Whether the music was Rock, Folk, Jazz, or Classical, the Rega System One reproduced the nuances of the program material. I’m impressed with the build and finish of the Rega System One. The affordable pricing makes this system a must-see and hear for anyone interested in buying a system at anywhere near this price point and above.

Rega Research Limited was started in 1973 in England by Roy Gandy and Tony Relph. Although the company is mostly known for its turntables, Rega has been manufacturing complete hi-fi music systems since the 1980s. The Rega System One which is the subject of this review is a complete system that includes Rega’s most affordable amp (the io), speakers (Kyte), and turntable (Planar 1). As many older audiophiles remember, there was a time, perhaps a golden age when someone could buy a complete system from most Audio manufacturers. This was during the late 1960s and through the 1980s.

When I was a youngster, I would see the ads and fantasize about owning a complete Marantz, a Pioneer, or a Sansui system that included a receiver, a turntable, a tape deck, and speakers. By the 1980’s I began to think that perhaps owning a system sourced from one manufacturer was not the best way to assemble a music system. One could acquire a turntable, amp, or speakers from a manufacturer that specialized in one product. Wouldn’t that be better? This was the case in the earlier days of Hi-Fi, in the 1940s and 1950s.

Now it seems we have come full circle with brands like Yamaha and McIntosh offering complete systems. What would be better, assembling a system from different manufacturers or from the same? This a question I will hope to address. The Rega System One offers an affordable alternative and an interesting combination for review.

The design of the Planar 1 is similar to the more expensive Rega turntables. That is because Roy Gandy and the Rega team are guided by a vision that is based on the search for musical accuracy. Some of the core Rega design goals are to build products that do not store energy and maintain rigidity, especially at places where there are joints. We see this vision throughout all Rega products, but I think especially in their turntables.

The upper line of Rega turntables features skeletal plinths constructed of polymers and resins that achieve the basic Rega design goals along with glass and ceramic platters. The Planar 1 features a low-mass plinth and a phenolic resin platter (something I have not seen before in a Rega turntable).

The Planar 1 turntable benefits from Rega’s ongoing research into turntable design. At the beginning of the Rega’s efforts many decades ago, the Rega design team decided on a path to take, and they have kept to it today. Founder Roy Gandy decided with trial and error, that the best principles for designing a turntable would include a frame (plinth) that would be of low mass and be able to release energy as fast as possible. The other main principle was that any joints or connection points needed to be as rigid as possible. Rega asserts that mass no matter how inert will hold unwanted energy that will degrade sound quality.

The tonearm benefits from decades of Rega-designed and built tonearms. Hand-built in the Rega factory, the Planar 1 tonearm has the look and the feel of the more expensive Rega tonearms and is matched with the excellent Rega Carbon cartridge. The Rega Planar 1 is engineered to pair with the Rega Carbon cartridge and this makes for a simple and effective set up.

Rega’s new io amp shares many of the design features of its larger, more expensive integrated amplifiers. The io is a class A/B output amp that has the Sanken output devices found in the larger Brio amp. An Alps potentiometer and a linear power supply are used also like in the Brio amplifier. The io has three inputs, two RCA line level, and one RCA phono input. The io phono stage benefits from the decades of research and development Rega has committed to analog reproduction. A pair of speaker terminals complete the back panel. A sophisticated headphone jack is included. The headphones used with the io amp will be driven by the power amplifier stage through relays to provide superior sound.

A word about power ratings. Although the io is conservatively rated at 30 watts a channel, it is very capable of filling a small to medium-sized room with a satisfying sound, much more so than your average A/V receiver. The dynamic capabilities of the io are outstanding and help contribute to the superior sound the Rega System One provides.

Although not as well-known as a speaker manufacturer, Rega has produced loudspeakers since their beginning, more than fifty years ago. The Kyte speaker uses the proven drivers of the RX series, the Rega-designed ZRR high-frequency unit, and the handmade by Rega MX-125 bass-mid unit.

What sets the Kyte apart is the new cabinet designed and manufactured by Rega. Using technology borrowed from their turntable research, the Kyte cabinet is made of phenolic resin. Internally, ceramic plates are used in the cross-bracing to ensure maximum rigidity. Rega’s innovations seek to reduce unwanted vibrations and distortions from the speaker cabinet. In true Rega fashion, this improvement in performance also lowers the price for a loudspeaker since a wood veneer would add a considerable amount to the cost of a loudspeaker. Given that, I think the Kyte loudspeaker looks pretty good too.

The set up was easy and straightforward. I think it took me longer to unbox the items than to get everything up and running. The set-up instructions for the System One from Rega are very well presented and clear. First-time audiophiles and regular folks should have no problem understanding what they need to do to get the system running.

To begin I placed all the components on a rectangular table. I made sure the turntable was level by using and checking the level with my small bubble level. Putting a power conditioner strip outlet under the table, I plugged the AC adaptor for the Planar 1 and the power cord for the io amp in. The power cord fits into the socket located under the back of the turntable, and on the io, there is a clearly marked receptacle for AC on the back of the unit. Next, I connected the phono cables from the turntable to the Phono input on the back of the io amp. It is important to make sure the Phono cables are in the Phono input, otherwise, the sound from the turntable will be muffled and distorted.

Then I removed the cardboard packing card from under the sub-platter and twisted the balance counterweight all the way to the stopping point on the back of the tonearm. I put the platter on the sub-platter and then carefully removed the stylus guard from the cartridge. The last step was to connect the Kyte speakers to the io amp, making sure I had the correct polarity (+ or -) on the supplied Rega speaker cable. I selected a record and turned the io amp on and made sure I was on input 1 which is the phono input. Then I flipped the rocker switch under the left front of the Planar 1 plinth and moved the tonearm over the record and lowered the cueing lever and I heard wonderful music when I turned the volume knob up. Rega offers an optional metal back plate for the Kyte speakers if you need it to fit onto your speaker stands. My initial listening was done in the office of my store, but when I took the Rega System One home to my small listening room, I used the 24” high metal stands from Sanus that I use for the Rega RX1 speakers I have at home. Those stands work well with the Kytes in my room without the back plate.

Opus3 recordings feature acoustic jazz, blues, folk, and classical music and their goal is to produce the most natural, accurate recordings of instruments and voices. River Road is one of my favorites in their catalog. Not only do I like the music, but since I play guitar, I can hear how well a system reproduces the guitars that Bert Deivert and Eric Bibb play on the album.

I placed the River Road LP on the Rega Planar 1 and let the stylus drop. I sat stunned as I listened to the entire first side, and then I played the second side. Immediately I heard detail and naturalness that is elusive to find in most audio systems. As I listened to the Rega System One I was reminded of my favorite system I owned back in the early 1990s. At that time, I owned a pair of Vandersteen Model 3 speakers with the Sound Anchor brace/stands, the original Well Tempered turntable with a Van Den Hull MC-10 cartridge mounted, an Audio Research SP-9 pre-amplifier and an Audio Research D200 amplifier. In 1990’s dollars I must have spent $10,000 on that system.

The quality of sound from my old system that I found so similar to the Rega System One was a smooth naturalness, and fidelity to tone that made my listening to music so satisfying. The difference between my old system and the Rega System One is that the older system did possess more bass extension as the Vandersteen 3’s are much bigger speakers. The Rega System One though had more intimacy with the performers and a midrange performance that is superior to the older system. The reproduction of the guitars as the performers finger-picked the strings was breathtaking. In the thirty-plus years that I have owned the album, I have never heard the harmonic structure of steel and wood on a guitar reproduced so convincingly. The voices were present and just soared when the music called for it. The River Road LP was one of the records I enjoyed hearing back then, and then again today on the Rega System One.

As the music played, the Rega System One recreated the acoustic environment of the live recording. The sound of the piano, bass, and drums were in a word vivid. Music flowed from the system and as we pleasantly listened for an hour, sipping our coffee, the sound was just delicious.

Altogether, the performance of the Rega System One gave a thrilling you are there in the hall experience. Instruments and music that seemed blurred or hazy in the past were clearly reproduced by the Rega System One. As a listener, you can easily follow the different musical lines. The timing and rhythmic pace were excellent and maybe unsurpassed in my experience. I’m glad I chose this piece to listen to as I have heard it many times over the years, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear new details I had not heard before.

Affordably priced, the Rega System One delivers astounding, ear-opening sound.

I can’t get over how well the Rega System One performs playing music. The Rega System One offers a beauty of tone, an ebb and flow of notes and dynamics that are hard to find in other gear, especially at this price point. Please don’t regard this system as an entry-level product only, the Rega System One can bring a high-end sound experience into your home.

If I had to pick the best over-achiever of this group of over-achievers, it would be the Kytes. The io amp and the Planar 1 are great performers in their price range, but the Kytes really push the envelope. The clarity and authority the Kytes bring are amazing. The Kytes really don’t sound like any other speaker I have heard. Their sound is more like the sound of the recorded material.

Now to my question at the beginning of the review, is buying an all-in-one system from one manufacturer better than trying to assemble the best possible from different companies? In the case of the Rega System One, the answer is yes. Although the individual components that make up the Rega System One will work very well with products from other manufacturers, together they have a synergy that is wonderfully complementary. It would be hard to duplicate this synergy otherwise.

So much musical satisfaction for so little price, are Roy Gandy and the team at Rega the fantastic new superheroes of the current economic slump? You will have plenty of change left over to buy groceries and gas and of course more records. Plus, you get sturdy, made-to-last components hand-made at the Rega factory, and a lifetime warranty on those products. Judge for yourself, but for me: my highest recommendation, to the moon and beyond!