Planar 8

The Planar 8 was Rega's attempt to bottle its no-limits 'Naiad' project at a real-world price, and it shows in the details. The skeletal Tancast 8 plinth is 30% lighter than the deck it replaced yet stiffer; the RB880 arm runs preloaded bearings adjusted to under a thousandth of a millimetre; the platter is a three-layer glass laminate that keeps its mass at the rim for flywheel effect. The Neo supply comes as standard. Above the Planar 6 the gains get subtler and the cartridge choice widens — Nd7, Nd9, Ania Pro or the Apheta 3 moving-coil — but on a resolving system the Planar 8 simply disappears and leaves the music.