Rega Aphelion - How Fragile?

Posted by: NickSeattle on 22 May 2018

I have recently acquired a lovingly used Rega RP10 with Aphelion -- my first MC, ever -- into Rega Aria.  It is rather better than the 2007-ish Planar3/RP300/Exact1 it replaces. 

In 40+ years of playing records, I have never damaged/broken a needle.  Now that I am finally using a MC, do I need to keep a tough old MM like the 3/Exact around for vetting friends' records, before permitting them access to the exhaulted RP10?  I would prefer to avoid such "preciousness", unless absolutely necessary. 

The Aphelion is (for me) quite an aspirational and lucky acquisition -- not something I want to destroy with naive disrespect.  

I am the sole controller of the turntable.  What should I know?  I could keep the Planar3, but would like to reduce clutter, if I can.  (Loving the idea of two-arm tables now!)

Thanks.

Nick

Posted on: 22 May 2018 by joerand
NickSeattle posted:

Now that I am finally using a MC, do I need to keep a tough old MM like the 3/Exact around for vetting friends' records

The Aphelion is (for me) quite an aspirational and lucky acquisition -- not something I want to destroy with naive disrespect.  

What leads you to believe a MM cart/stylus is 'tougher' than a MC? The best thing you can do to reduce stylus wear is maintain proper tracking weight and play clean LPs. If you don't already have one, I'd recommend a record cleaning machine and never play any LP, even a new one before cleaning.

Posted on: 22 May 2018 by Richard Dane

I second the advice to get an RCM. No need to go mad either - the Pro-Ject RCM is excellent, particularly now in mk2 form, which has addressed the few niggles I had with the original. It must be one of the best value RCMs around. 

Dont forget to also get some nice new poly inners for the cleaned LPs. 

Posted on: 22 May 2018 by Adam Zielinski

Nick

Absolutely nothing special, when it comes to using it, is needed with RP10/Aphelion (comes from a fellow RP10/Aphelion owner).

If you are a sole user of the turntable, you won’t need to put a stylus guard on it. It’s a bit of a fiddly affair. And if any damage is to occur it may come from putting this particular contraption on. I leave mine off all the time.

RP10 is a high end deck, so just make sure it’s been set up correctly - tracking weight and antiskating. Like with all Regas there is not vertical tracking adjustment.

What else - a good phono stage is helpful. I started with a Rega Aria and migrated to SuperLine with SuperCapDR (with super results )

Enjoy your new deck! And the music of course

Adam

Posted on: 23 May 2018 by Christopher_M

Hi Nick, I've nothing to add that others have not written, except a top flight turntable into a NAC552, Wow! and congrats!

Best, Chris

Posted on: 23 May 2018 by Ravenswood10

RCMs also come up on a certain auction site for on time to time. I got an excellent VPI machine via this route a couple of years back and it does a great job

Posted on: 23 May 2018 by yeti42

Hopefully with that combo you'll be able to assess antiskate by ear rather than relying on Rega's scale.

Posted on: 23 May 2018 by Adam Zielinski
yeti42 posted:

Hopefully with that combo you'll be able to assess antiskate by ear rather than relying on Rega's scale.

I would still use a blank vinyl to set it up.

Posted on: 23 May 2018 by Richard Dane

There's a scale?

On the Rega it's approximate (as Adam says above, a blank slab of vinyl helps here), and then definitely by ear from there. 

Posted on: 23 May 2018 by yeti42

I use blank vinyl too and then ear to maximise dynamics somewhere near that setting but when I had a Rega, albeit a lesser example, I hadn’t heard about the rather approximate nature of Rega’s antiskate calibration and after a while I found the cantilever of my 17D2 out of true in two planes. It would be a shame for Nick to find out the hard way.

Posted on: 23 May 2018 by NickSeattle

Amen!  Thanks for the advice, one and all.  

Nick