Vinyl for Beginners

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The cartridge is a four year old Rega Bias. .... can anyone recommend something (MM only please - less than £100)? Is it easy to set up a new cart or should i leave it to a dealer?

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Exchange for a new Bias/Super Bias or Elys depending on how much you want to spend. The rega cartridges have 3 hole fixing to the Rega arms, so they are the easiest choice, the tracking weight is about 1,75g for these cartridges.

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The interconnect is the original one .... I would like to replace this but do turntables need a special type?

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You can go crazy replacing this, leave it until you've replaced the catridge. There are a couple of choices to replace the cabling. Incognito makes a kit (115GBP) that esentially replaces the wires all the way from the catridge to the phono plugs that go to your amp. You could go the whole 8.2286 m (9 yards) and get the full monty RB300 turbocharge from Origin Live that replaces the counterwight stub, the counter weight the internal arm wire and the external arm wire and the phono plugs (>200GBP, check the OriginLive web site)

Rega 3 is a fine player, it has much to recommend it, not the least being it's fuss free suspension

Peter

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Lastly, the felt mat is in pretty poor condition. I have seen adverts for various 'statmats' but are they any good?

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Personally, I own a Planar 2, and even though it is by far not as good as a 3, I felt that the mat had quite an influence on the sound.

The felt mat is indeed not the most practical invention, so I tried two other mats on my glass plate:

Thorens rubber mat: sounded "dead"
No mat at all: was absolutely unlistenable to (harsh, no bass)

And don't forget that the height of the arm has to bet set accordingly. Years ago, I bought an "antistatic" mat (for a Revox TT) and it did not have any beneficial effect at all.

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The cartridge is a four year old Rega Bias. .... can anyone recommend something (MM only please - less than £100)? Is it easy to set up a new cart or should i leave it to a dealer?

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Rega makes very fine cartridges (all made by Audio Technica, AFAIK), I'd personally go for that.

Have a nice day and enjoy

Bernard

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if you can spend more or less £200, please buy a Sumiko Blue Point Special (it's an MC with MM output level), I have one and it's great

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No argument about it's sound quality0. A friend of mine bought one for his system, but before I could get to hear it, the Cleaning lady broke of the cantilever.

It has a very exposed cantilever, you need to be extremely careful with it.

Peter

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the "cleaning women" is very dangerous whatever cartridge you have, the first thing I say to mine is "Don't ever get close to my Hi-Fi system including speakers!!!".

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I've never had a problem with mine, but my friend was not clear in his instructions. H'es anglophone, she's arabophone and the communicate in french, so something got lost in the translation ... the cantilever

Peter

2) Wiring: I would certainly spend money on a cartridge before the arm wiring. A better cartridge will track better as well as sound better, so that's a better bet for your records.

3) Upgrading: Origin Live reckon that their replacement of the counterweight assembly does more than a rewire. Another counterweight replacement from Express Machining in the US has gotten good notices. As have some bases for the arm that allow changes in VTA. I would do any of these before a rewire.

But, you should make careful consideration of any upgrade besides the cartridge, because if you intend to go deeper into vinyl, your money would be better spent on a better deck/arm combo bought used. In the UK, Linn LP12s are extraordinarily cheap and blow away a Rega P3. Linn's competitor decks are also very cheap--Roksan, Oracle, Michell, Pink Triangle--available for chump change. If you got a rewire and new counterweight for your Rega, you could spend the better part of two hundred pounds, whereas for a bit more you could get a deck that offers fundamentally superior performance.

4) The mat: Some like the effect of the DNM ringmat on a Rega. I can't comment, though I didn't like it much on a Linn. Why not just get a new Rega mat from a dealer?

--Eric

If the Bias is declared fit for work by your dealer, buy the new motor upgrade for £85 instead. This makes a big difference to speed stability and quietness. It's very well worth the money. After all, there's no point in changing the cartridge if it's got a lot of life left in it. If you can afford it, buy the new extended nut for the arm which also improves things.

If the Bias is in poor shape, you have to replace it or it will ruin your records. I find Rega cartridges to be bright and harsh, which accentuates the Rega's slightly bright character (note 'slightly'). For under £100, I would go with an Ortofon 520 or 530 (£70 and £100 respectively) and a 2mm spacer under the arm (the dealer should know this).

The Ortofons are sweeter than the Regas but of course, there's the spacer to buy too. The extended nut seems to improve all manner of things like grip and pace.

As to the Sumiko BPS, I'm sorry but I disagree with this idea. The BPS is a very good cartridge indeed, but I think its brightish character would be a bit too much in the Rega combination. I have had excellent results with the Dynavector 10x4 (£200); this is the best (most expensive) cartridge I recommend for the deck.

Regards,
Frank.

Bernard